National Wildlife Week: Sea Creatures You Can Find in the UK
British divers, this one is for you! It’s national wildlife week, so we thought that we needed to celebrate by giving a highlight to some of the incredible wildlife that you can find here in UK waters. The British waters are teaming with life! There are lots of cool sea creatures you can discover right on our doorstep. The UK is home to around 170,000 of these shy and elusive creatures! You don’t have to travel halfway across the world to discover amazing underwater wildlife, as we have so much to explore.
So if you’re new to UK diving and you need a bit more convincing to dive here, within this blog I'll be sharing about some of the creatures you can find swimming around in your local waters. Here you’ll discover some creatures that lurk in our waters, to occasional visitors to those that reside in our waters, I'll be featuring some of those that like to spend time around our local waters.
What type of sea creatures could you find chilling or swimming around in British waters? If you’re on the fence about diving in England, reading on might just change your mind.
Let’s talk about the main ones, shall we? These are some of the top aquatic life that you may be interested in diving with, there are certain areas and times you can see these sea creatures.
Grey Seals
The Grey Seal is the largest of the seal family to be found in the UK. Roughly half of the worldwide population of Greys is found in Britain! The water conditions here are perfect for these marine animals, hence why there’s such a large population.
The Grey Seals are found at any time of year. The most popular locations that are favoured by divers are the Lundy Islands and Farne Islands. I have most recently been to the Lundy Islands on a diving trip and I can safely say that it’s been my most memorable diving experience here in the UK. There was this one seal that was very interested in our group, he was very intrigued and playful. It’s something that I highly recommend all divers who live in the UK should experience.
Basking Sharks
Basking Sharks are the second-largest shark in the world! This filter-feeding shark gets the name ‘basking’ because they seem to bask in the warm surface waters of the sea.
If you wish to dive or snorkel with the Basking Shark, you can experience them at numerous locations along the west coast of the UK, starting in Cornwall in the spring/summer and finishing in Scotland around September time.
Blue Sharks
Another popular attraction here in the UK is diving and snorkelling with blue sharks. A strikingly stunning and sleek shark that is a real favourite with divers. If you’re a diver who loves underwater photography, these sharks sure love the camera as they’re known to swim up and bump the lens. This is due to the electric currents running from the camera that the sharks are attracted to.
Blue Sharks are unusually found along the Devon and Cornish coast in the summer months as this is within their migratory route. In the Atlantic, they appear to follow a clockwise route, following the Gulf Stream to the UK from the Caribbean and returning there following the Atlantic North Equatorial Current.
Other Sea Creatures You Can Find in British Waters
Some of the other types of sea creatures that you can find swimming around UK's coastal waters are: Pipefish, Cuttlefish, Octopus, Dogfish, Dolphin, Sunfish, Lobster, Crabs, Tompot Blenny, Nudibranch, Wrasse, Seahorse, John Dory, Starfish, Jellyfish and many more!
Sea creatures such as cuttlefish, dogfish, lobsters, crabs and wrasse are found pretty much everywhere around the UK. So whether you’re shore diving or boat diving, you are in with the chance of seeing these awesome sea creatures anywhere.
