Exploring Britain's Hidden World: A Natural History of Seabed Habitats

276 Pages·2022·577.609 MB·English

by  Keith Hiscock

EXPLORING
BRITAIN’S
HIDDEN WORLD
A Natural History of Seabed Habitats
Keith Hiscock
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To my children, Sally and Peter,
who had to tolerate my many absences on fieldwork
and occasional abandonment while Dad went diving.
To my grandchildren, Maisie and Archie,
who I hope will grow up to love the sea and want to protect it.
Published in 2018 by
Wild Nature Press
Winson House, Church Road
Plympton St Maurice, Plymouth PL7 1NH
Copyright © 2018 text Keith Hiscock
Copyright © 2018 photographs Keith Hiscock, unless individually credited
Copyright © 2018 illustrations as credited
Keith Hiscock has asserted his right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-9955673-4-4
Printed and bound in Slovenia on behalf of Latitude Press
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www.wildnaturepress.com
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Contents
Foreword 5
Preface 7

Using this book 7
Exploration and discovery: the first 150 years 9

Early days 9

Systematic studies – remote sampling 13

Diving and video surveys 17
Gathering knowledge and creating information –
the past 50 years or so
21
Remote sampling and observation 21
Scuba diving takes off 28
How we made sense of it all (biotopes) 36
Shaping the seabed environment 40
Britain’s place in the world 40
Ocean currents 42
Wave action 42
Tidal currents 48
Wave action and tidal currents together 50
Light and depth 52
Salt and fresh 55
Weather events 55
Modifying factors 57
Physical and biological factors: bringing it all together 57
Habitats 60
Sediments 60
Open coast rocky areas 78
Wrecks and other artificial substrata 114
Sea lochs 134
Rias and voes 152
Tidal sounds and other extremely tide-swept habitats 162
Estuaries 170
Saline lagoons 180
Species as habitats 185
Change 205

Seasons in the sea 208

Human activities 220
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Decadal scale change 221

Non-native species 226

Seawater warming 228

What you can do 229
Protecting what we have 230

Threats and sensitivities 231

Protection 234

Marine protected areas – what they will and will not do 237

Restoration? 240

Research 240

The dilemma of non-native species 241

What you can do 242
Technology takes off 243

Finding information 243

Making seabed biology information ‘useful’ 245

Visualisation 246

Collecting information 248
Glossary 250
Biotopes listed and illustrated 256
Index
260
Acknowledgements 270
The author 271
The sponsors 272
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Foreword
You can wait a lifetime for a book like this. Actually, I’ve had to wait much of Keith Hiscock’s lifetime – long may
he prosper! I well remember poring over the pages of seashore guides in my teens as a budding marine scientist.
With their cartoon renderings of seaweed, anemone and snail, these books were constant companions as I trudged
slippery shores and peered into rock pools. They hinted at deeper mysteries further offshore, beyond reach. There
was no guide available for this other world; certainly none that went beyond the mere naming of species. I wish I
had possessed a copy of Exploring Britain’s Hidden World then.
This book is a unique distillation of knowledge and insight built up over a long and storied career. Superlatives
are easy to use but rarely fully justified. In this case, however, I feel complete confidence in saying that nobody
knows Britain’s underwater world as well as Keith Hiscock. His remarkable understanding of this country’s marine
life transcends the encyclopaedic knowledge of a taxonomist or a museum curator, being based on thousands of
hours spent underwater observing, at first hand, the creatures that live there.
Keith’s years of research laid the foundations for the habitat scheme used to classify the rich variety of
conditions found in European seas. He was an early adopter of internet technology, publishing detailed profiles of
thousands of marine species for anyone with a computer connection – a facility that I have used many times. The
detail and accuracy of these accounts was peerless, but I longed for a book too. One that I could browse from the
comfort of an armchair, just for the pleasure of happening upon something unusual and unsought. This, at last, is
that book.
The beautifully illustrated pages invite the reader to dip in again and again, and at each return, to come away
with something wonderful, new and unexpected. Britain’s seas are as sublime and beautiful as any far-flung regions
of the planet featured in television documentaries, but by comparison, they are neglected and little-known. This
book is a key to the hidden world that surrounds these islands. So let it peel back the veiled surface and reveal to you
the joys that lie beneath.
Callum Roberts is Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York,
and author of Ocean of Life: How our Seas are Changing.
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Exploring Britain’s Hidden World
Sullom Voe
200m
St Kilda s
de 100m
i
r
North Uist b
e
H Loch Carron
e Loch Duich
200m h Fort
T William
2000m
Oban
Loch
Long Forth Estuary
Loch Sween St Abb’s
100m Millport Head
Farne Islands
50m
100m
Flamborough Head
Liverpool Humber Estuary
Bay
Anglesey
Caernarfon Bay Menai Strait Sheringham
Abereiddy
Hunstanton
Cardigan
Bay
50m
Abereiddy Quarry
Martin’s Haven River Blackwater
Skomer
Milford Haven
Bristol
Bristol Channel Severn Estuary
Lundy Combe Lynmouth
Martin
100m Clovelly
The Fleet
Poole Bay
Newquay Plymouth Torbay Weymouth
Salcombe
Falmouth
Eddystone Rocks
Isles of Scilly Hand Deeps
Lizard Hatt Rock
Penzance
Mount’s Bay Helford River
Place names mentioned in the text.
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Preface
This book provides a foundation of knowledge for those interested in the natural
history of the shallow seabed and demonstrates the marvellous variety of marine
life out of sight around Great Britain. The undersea world is fascinating, beautiful
and often fragile. The seabed is home to species that are essential to maintaining the
richness, health and productivity of our oceans and whose very presence enriches
our lives. If seabed habitats and species are to be protected and enjoyed, we need to
know what they are and where they are and we need to identify our top conservation
priorities.
The area covered is the seabed beyond low water and shallower than 100m off
England, Scotland and Wales (Great Britain), not including the Isle of Man, the
Channel Islands or Ireland.
The book is the culmination of 50 years of research by the author to better
understand where different subtidal seabed habitats occur and how their associated
marine life has come to exist. That quest draws on a rich vein of knowledge obtained
by many naturalists, scientists and divers who, for almost 200 years, have described
seabed communities and sought to understand how they are structured and how they
function (how they work). Building on that firm foundation, it brings the reader up
to date with the latest information about where seabed habitats and their associated
communities can be found today, and looks forward to the ways in which we will be
exploring our seabed heritage in the future. It is intended to be enjoyed, to inspire
and, hopefully, to surprise.
USING THIS BOOK
One of the great differences in publishing a book in 2018 compared with just a couple
of years before, is that lists of source references are becoming redundant. With a very
few clues in the text, the reader can search the Internet to find the relevant reference
and often the actual scientific paper. So, there are no references.
Technical terms are kept to a minimum and are explained wherever possible in the
text. There is a glossary of frequently used terms at the end of the book.
The names of habitats and their associated communities of species (biotopes) are
given at the end of relevant captions. For the non-specialist reader, ignore them – even
experienced scientists struggle with the alphabetic codes. Enter a code into a web
search to obtain a full description and distribution map.
For place names mentioned in the text, see the map on page 6.
The scientific names of species change occasionally. The names used in this book
have been checked against those listed in the World Register of Marine Species and
were correct in December 2017.
Readers can dip into the parts of the book they find interesting and useful.
Although the images should leave a lasting memory of what the seabed habitats and
species around Britain look like, the sections on how seabed habitats are shaped by the
environment and how species and habitats are distributed according to environmental
conditions help to explain why things are where they are. The historical accounts
are important: without understanding the history of study, we will not see current
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Exploring Britain’s Hidden World
knowledge in context and may even repeat what has already been done. The chapter
entitled ‘Protecting what we have’ will, I hope, make readers think about what really
matters – what we should cherish and protect for the future. Good work has already
been done to look after seabed habitats and species, but there is much more to do!
Although this book can extend your knowledge of seabed biology, get out there
and study it for yourself if you can: that is the only way to fully appreciate and
understand ecology. This book is meant to inspire, and to encourage you to put
that inspiration into practice. Contribute your own observations of species, of their
behaviour and of any changes, to enhance our understanding of the hidden world of
the seabed.
For the past 50 years or so, scuba
diving has enabled a greater
appreciation and understanding of
life in Britain’s shallow seas. Shallow
kelp forest with Dead Men’s Fingers
and Jewel Anemones at the
Eddystone reefs south of Plymouth.
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