From 27th July - 11th Aug 2024 it is officially National Marine Week.
Join us here at The Coral Centre celebrating all things marine! This year’s theme for National Marine Week is “Sea Connection”. As an island nation, we are closely connected to the sea and, in celebration of this week’s theme, we are taking this opportunity to reflect on a particular marine inhabitant closer to home, cold water coral!
Located off the coast of Scotland, the UK is home to the cold-water coral species Lophelia pertusa, that has formed reefs on the seabed up to 400m deep. Like their tropical counterparts, these cold-water coral reefs are made up of hundreds of individual high-branching coral colonies that have formed over hundreds of years. The Lophelia reefs provide many multi-leveled habitats to a range of marine species,that depend on the structures for food and shelter.
Currently, UK based cold-water coral reefs have been classified as a priority habitat, under the 2010 Biodiversity Framework listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive (reefs) and on the OSPAR List of Threatened and/or Declining Species and Habitats.
How can we help protect UK marine habitats?
Below are some ideas we have put together for you to help contribute to the protection of our marine life around the UK.
- Get involved in your local beach cleans
- Volunteering for UK wildlife organisations.
- Choose sustainably caught seafood (Marine Conservation Society- The Good Fish Guide)
- Reduce, reuse and recycle wherever possible.
- Swap to a reef-safe suncream
As the UK's most sustainable Coral provider, we take great pride in the work we do to look after our seas locally and worldwide. Buying from The Coral Centre, helps support coral & coral reef research. We'd like to thank our loyal customers for their continued support as together, we will help to restore coral reefs around the world.
Stay tuned to our website and social media for more activity during National Marine Week. What are you doing to celebrate? Let us know!