Somerset Coast & Marine

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Dunlin: Numbers of over wintering birds around Bridgwater Bay have dwindled over recent years, as birds, migrating from the arctic, find mild enough wintering grounds in southern Scandinavia or the English east coast. For example in the 1970s annual figures for Dunlin on the Severn Estuary regularly reached 50,000, but now we are lucky to get 15,000. As really cold snaps become less frequent, the impetus for birds migrating as far as Somerset will disappear.

Cod: As the climate warms so too will the oceans. Species such as Cod, already under threat from over-fishing, face even more pressure form the impacts of climate change. Sea temperatures off the Somerset coast are expected to rise between 0.5 and 1 degree by 2050 resulting in a reduction in their food source and an impairment of larval growth.