Seahorses

There are two species found in British waters:  Long Snouted (also known as the Spiny) seahorse and the Short Snouted seahorse.

Unsurprisingly, the main difference between them is the length of their snout. At around 15cm they’re half the size of a typical ruler.  

Both species can change colour to act as camouflage – seahorses aren’t the fastest of swimmers so they rely on concealment tactics to avoid being eaten by predatory fish.  

These seahorses are found all around the UK - populations have even been found even in the River Thames! These spectacular creatures tend to stick to shallow, sheltered waters where they can hide and use their tail to cling onto seaweed and seagrass.

Giant Devil Ray

The devil fish or giant devil ray (Mobula mobular) is a species of ray in the family Mobulidae.

It is currently listed as endangered, mostly due to bycatch mortality in unrelated fisheries.

Giant devil rays are usually seen in deep coastal waters but are occasionally seen in shallow waters around the UK. In a tagging experiment conducted by the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), three giant devil rays were tagged and their depth was observed throughout different times of the day diving to a depth of 600 meters.

Leatherback Turtles

When you think of these huge animals, images of exotic beaches might come to mind, but the abundance of jellyfish around the UK’s coast from time to time provides a great source of food for these giants.

They make the marathon journey across the Atlantic Ocean, following the warmer Gulf Stream, which brings them all the way to our shores. In fact, Wales holds the world record for the largest marine turtle ever discovered: in 1988, a leatherback was found measuring 2.5 m long, 2.5 m from flipper to flipper and weighing over 900 kg - Basically the size od a mini

The Harbour Porpoise

The smallest cetacean (the group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises) we have in the UK, and at around 1.5m long it’s the second smallest porpoise in the world.  

It takes a newborn harbour porpoise less than 30 hours to develop full hearing – this is the fastest of any mammal, on land or sea.  

The UK is home to around 170,000 of these shy and elusive creatures, which need to feed almost around the clock to survive. Their nickname is the “puffing pig” after the sound they make when coming up to breathe. 

Basking sharks

The second largest fish in the world. They are gentle giants and can be spotted around the coast of Britain, swimming slowly, basking in the sun. They swim near the surface with their huge mouths wide open, filtering plankton from the water to eat. 

They can measure up to 11m long and weigh up to 7 tonnes, making them the largest fish in British waters and almost the same weight as a London bus! 

Orcas

Despite being known as 'killer whales', orcas are actually the largest species of dolphin.  

Orcas are intelligent animals with varying hunting techniques (including herding and slapping prey with their tails), which they use to eat most marine mammals, seabirds, fish, sharks and octopus, amongst other things.  

The Angel Shark is one of the rarest sharks in the world and is critically endangered. Thought to be clinging on around the warmer waters of the Canary Islands, their rediscovery in our waters is very new and offers a glimmer of hope for their survival.  

These “flat sharks” are well camouflaged and are likely to be found on the sea floor, where they lie in wait to feed on small fish and molluscs. 

Bottlenose dolphins are beautiful, sociable animals. They’re one of the few species, along with apes and humans, that have the ability to recognise themselves in a mirror.  

Bottlenose dolphins sleep with one half of their brain at a time, and keep one eye open. It's believed they do this to keep an eye out for their group - to make sure they stick together - and to look out for predators like sharks.  

There are thought to be three resident pods of bottlenose dolphin around the UK - one in Cardigan Bay, Wales; one in the Moray Firth, Scotland; and the final one in Cornwall.