Stop 3: Ferry Beach

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Show transcript

ALISON

I think Fleetwood is just an amazing space and place. I think both it's the community who really love their town and their area so much, and the heritage that it's got within it, the built heritage. And it's the reason why it's such an amazing place for wildlife and, and being so unique is its location.

So it's right on the corner of the Fylde Coast, coming up from Blackpool and Cleveleys and on the corner with Morecambe and Morecambe Bay starts here, where we are here at Rossall Point and, and heads right down and round and all the way back up, passed Morecambe, back up to the late district. So here at Rossall Point Tower, you can actually view the whole of Morecambe Bay.

You can look out over to the Irish Sea, you can sometimes see the Isle of Man. And that unique location gives it unique wildlife and, and heritage. And so the whole of Morecambe Bay and the Wyre estuary itself, are protected by the Government, Natural England, because of the different combinations of wildflowers and the dunes of the birds and the Marine mammals and the Marine wildlife, and the invertebrates are all used in this area.


LEN

180,000 birds, winter in Morecambe Bay and equal numbers pass through on migration. Yes, it’s incredibly important. It's a huge area of mud, and sand. If you look across the bay towards Barrow, it's eight miles across, but it's 85 miles right by road round to Barrow. So it's a big area and lots of things in there.

Most days now we do see seals and they've actually been breeding in Morecambe Bay on Walney Island, which is just across from us here. So we see them all the year round until they disappear in October, they go, September, October when they have the pups. But I've seen one today before you came today, I saw two bottle nosed dolphins. That's a sign that seas are clear, cleaner, and we see Harbour Porpoise quite regularly, too, dolphins in summer, mainly between May and August, but porpoise all year round.

And seals. I like it when they surface, but all the fishermen on the, on the strand line, on the shoreline and the, the sealed surfaces with the great big fish in its mouth, you know, show the fishermen how to do it.


MARK

Morecambe Bay was formed at the end of the last ice age as the glaciers came down from Scotland. They form the lake district and they tore a great big hole in the ground. And the mud and sand in Morecambe Bay can be up to 80 metres deep. So that's those tidal currents, the soft sand and the mud mean that goalies can form very quickly, very easily.

It’s 120 square miles or 310 square kilometres of intertidal, salt and mud flats. And the tide here in Fleetwood is the second highest in the UK and is actually in the top 10 in the world.

It rises 10.6 metres between being fully out and fully in, in a matter of about six hours, and if the wind and the weather are added to that, it can increase to over 11 metres. That means the tide race is in at more than 10 miles an hour, and that can outpace even running horses.

Fleetwood is surrounded by beaches and the salt marsh on the River Wyre, so it caters for all sorts of people. If you want the beautiful views of the lake district, come on a day when the tide is in and you've got 120 square miles of water. The backdrop of the lake district. And it's stunning. There's nowhere like it in the UK.

If people are interested in birds and wildlife, they can look at the birds, the fishing and anything else they want to.