68-506: Wigtown Bay is a large inlet of the Irish Sea on the coast of Galloway in southwest Scotland . Its coastline falls entirely within the modern administrative area of Dumfries and Galloway and shared between the historical counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire . The bay is broadly triangular in form, widening to the southeast and with the estuary of the River Cree entering from
136-513: A basal Permian unconformity into at least the western part of the Caernarfon Bay Basin. The timing of gas generation presents the greatest exploration risk. Maximum burial of, and primary gas migration from, the source rocks could have terminated as early as the Jurassic , whereas many of the tilted fault blocks were reactivated or created during Paleogene inversion of the basin. However, it
204-600: A continuation into British waters of Ireland's North Celtic Sea Basin, which has two producing gas fields. The basin comprises a south-easterly deepening half-graben near the Welsh coastline, although its internal structure becomes increasingly complex towards the southwest. Permian to Triassic, syn-rift sediments within the basin are less than 3 km (1.9 mi) thick and are overlain by up to 4 km (2.5 mi) of Jurassic strata, and locally also by up to 2 km (1.2 mi) of Paleogene fluvio-deltaic sediments. The basin has
272-454: A corresponding dosage of radioactivity naturally occurring in the seafood consumed by this group of 148 μSv (0.0148 rem) and a total average dosage in Ireland from all sources of 3,620 μSv (0.362 rem). In terms of risk to this group, heavy consumption of seafood generates a 1 in 18 million chance of causing cancer. The general risk of contracting cancer in Ireland is 1 in 522. In
340-454: A large extent on whether the seabed is composed of rock , boulders , gravel , sand , mud or even peat . In the soft sediments seven types of community have been provisionally identified, variously dominated by brittle-stars , sea urchins , worms, mussels , tellins , furrow-shells , and tower-shells. Parts of the bed of the Irish Sea are very rich in wildlife. The seabed southwest of
408-578: A local government area in Northern Ireland , and are famed in Irish Celtic mythology through their association with the Children of Lir . In the 1800s, this strait was sometimes referred to in general terms as the "Irish Channel". In the 19th century, Alexander Keith Johnston 's suggested name St Patrick's Channel had currency, but it was rejected by the hydrographic department . The North Channel
476-646: A plan to reintroduce grey whales by airlifting 50 of them from the Pacific Ocean to the Irish Sea was claimed to be logically and ethically feasible; it has not been implemented as of 2013. The common or harbour seal and the grey seal are both resident in the Irish Sea. Common seals breed in Strangford Lough, grey seals in southwest Wales and, in small numbers, on the Isle of Man. Grey seals haul out, but do not breed, off Hilbre and Walney islands, Merseyside ,
544-562: A proven petroleum system, with potentially producible gas reserves at the Dragon discovery near the UK/ROI median line, and oil shows in a further three wells. The Cardigan Bay Basin contains multiple reservoir targets, which include the Lower Triassic (Sherwood Sandstone), Middle Jurassic shallow marine sandstones and limestone (Great Oolite ), and Upper Jurassic fluvial sandstone, the reservoir for
612-528: A series of dramatic changes over the last 20,000 years as the last glacial period ended and was replaced by warmer conditions. At the height of the glaciation, the central part of the modern sea was probably a long freshwater lake. As the ice retreated 10,000 years ago, the lake reconnected to the sea. The Irish Sea was formed in the Neogene era. Notable crossings include several invasions from Britain. The Norman invasion of Ireland took place in stages during
680-621: A year. Holyhead port handles most of the passenger traffic from Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ports, as well as 3.3 million tonnes (3,200,000 long tons; 3,600,000 short tons) of freight. Ports in the Republic handle 3,600,000 travellers crossing the sea each year, amounting to 92% of all Irish Sea travel. Ferry connections from Wales to Ireland across the Irish Sea include Fishguard Harbour and Pembroke to Rosslare , Holyhead to Dún Laoghaire and Holyhead to Dublin. From Scotland , Cairnryan connects with both Belfast and Larne . There
748-849: Is a 46,007 km (17,763 sq mi) body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain . It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Channel . Anglesey , North Wales , is the largest island in the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man . The term Manx Sea may occasionally be encountered ( Welsh : Môr Manaw , Irish : Muir Meann Manx : Mooir Vannin , Scottish Gaelic : Muir Mhanainn ). On its shoreline are Scotland to
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#1732854705165816-659: Is also a connection between Liverpool and Belfast via the Isle of Man or direct from Birkenhead . The world's largest car ferry , Ulysses , is operated by Irish Ferries on the Dublin Port–Holyhead route; Stena Line also operates between Britain and Ireland. "Irish Sea" is also the name of one of the BBC 's Shipping Forecast areas defined by the coordinates: Iarnród Éireann , Irish Ferries , Northern Ireland Railways , ScotRail , Stena Line and Transport for Wales Rail promote SailRail with through rail tickets for
884-494: Is also possible that a secondary gas charge occurred during regional heating associated with intrusion of Paleogene dykes , such as those that crop out nearby on the coastline of north Wales. (Floodpage et al., 1999) have invoked this second phase of Paleogene hydrocarbon generation as an important factor in the charging of the East Irish Sea Basin's oil and gas fields. It is not clear as yet whether aeromagnetic anomalies in
952-686: Is bounded to the north and south by Lower Paleozoic massifs . Only two exploration wells have been drilled so far, and there remain numerous undrilled targets in tilted fault block plays . As in the East Irish Sea Basin, the principal target reservoir is the Lower Triassic, Sherwood Sandstone, top-sealed by younger Triassic mudstones and evaporites. Wells in the Irish Sector to the west have demonstrated that pre-rift, Westphalian coal measures are excellent hydrocarbon source rocks, and are at peak maturity for gas generation (Maddox et al., 1995). Seismic profiles clearly image these strata continuing beneath
1020-513: Is closely associated with sediment activity, with muddy deposits on the seabed acting as sinks, soaking up an estimated 200 kg (440 lb) of plutonium . The highest concentration is found in the eastern Irish Sea in sediment banks lying parallel to the Cumbrian coast. This area acts as a significant source of wider contamination as radionuclides are dissolved once again. Studies have revealed that 80% of current seawater contamination by caesium
1088-510: Is no top-seal for reservoirs sub cropping the regional base Permian unconformity in the east of the basin, and Carboniferous strata crop out at the sea bed in the west. Previous exploration drilling in the Kish Bank Basin has confirmed the potential for petroleum generation with oil shows seen in a number of wells together with natural hydrocarbon seeps recorded from airborne surveys. New analysis of vintage 2-D seismic data has revealed
1156-512: Is on the eastern side of the Kintyre peninsula, but the western side is only about 16 kilometres (10 mi) from Torr Head coast to coast. The shortest route between Glasgow and Belfast is the route used by the existing ferry service, that via Portpatrick / Stranraer (about 150 km (93 mi) from Glasgow) and Larne (about 35 km (22 mi) from Belfast), a coast-to-coast distance of 45 kilometres (28 mi). This route would require
1224-461: Is sourced from sediment banks, whilst plutonium levels in the western sediment banks between the Isle of Man and the Irish coast are being maintained by contamination redistributed from the eastern sediment banks. The consumption of seafood harvested from the Irish Sea is the main pathway for exposure of humans to radioactivity. The environmental monitoring report for the period 2003 to 2005 published by
1292-554: Is the strait between north-eastern Northern Ireland and south-western Scotland . The Firth of Clyde merges with the channel, between the southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula and Corsewall Point on the Rhins of Galloway . The channel begins north of the Isle of Man and is customarily considered part of the Irish Sea , the channel runs north-west into the Atlantic Ocean . Within
1360-555: Is the name given to the narrowest expanse of sea in the North Channel between north-eastern Northern Ireland ( County Antrim ) and south-western highlands of Scotland ( Mull of Kintyre ). The narrowest part of the strait is between the Mull of Kintyre and Torr Head, where its width is 19 kilometres (12 mi; 10 nmi), making it possible to see across in clear weather conditions. The straits gave their name to Moyle District Council ,
1428-532: The Bahama and King William Banks to the east and north of the Isle of Man and the Kish Bank , Codling Bank, Arklow Bank and Blackwater Bank near the coast of Ireland. The Irish Sea, at its greatest width, is 200 km (120 mi) and narrows to 75 km (47 mi). The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Irish Sea (with St George's Channel) as follows, The Irish Sea has undergone
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#17328547051651496-855: The Douglas Complex the gas is piped by subsea pipeline to the Point of Ayr gas terminal for further processing. The gas is then sent by onshore pipeline to PowerGen 's combined cycle gas turbine power station at Connah's Quay . PowerGen is the sole purchaser of gas from the Liverpool Bay development. The Liverpool Bay development comprises four offshore platforms. Offshore storage and loading facilities. The onshore gas processing terminal at Point of Ayr. Production first started at each field as follows: Hamilton North in 1995, Hamilton in 1996, Douglas in 1996, Lennox (oil only) in 1996 and Hamilton East 2001. The first contract gas sales were in 1996. The quality of
1564-683: The North Atlantic at both its northern and southern ends. To the north, the connection is through the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland and the Malin Sea . The southern end is linked to the Atlantic through the St George's Channel between Ireland and Pembrokeshire , and the Celtic Sea . It is composed of a deeper channel about 300 km (190 mi) long and 30–50 km (20–30 mi) wide on its western side and shallower bays to
1632-533: The North Channel to see if a tunnel between Ireland and Scotland was viable. Sixty years later, Harford Montgomery Hyde , Unionist MP for North Belfast, called for the building of such a tunnel. A tunnel project has been discussed several times in the Irish parliament . The idea for a 34-kilometre (21 mi) long rail bridge or tunnel continues to be mooted. Several potential projects have been proposed, including one between Dublin and Holyhead put forward in 1997 by
1700-491: The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) reported that in 2005 average quantities of radioactive contamination found in seafood ranged from less than 1 Bq/kg (12 pCi/lb) for fish to under 44 Bq/kg (540 pCi/lb) for mussels. Doses of man-made radioactivity received by the heaviest consumers of seafood in Ireland in 2005 was 1.10 μSv (0.000110 rem). This compares with
1768-449: The Wirral , St Annes, Barrow-in-Furness Borough, and Cumbria. The Irish Sea has been described by Greenpeace as the most radioactively contaminated sea in the world with some "eight million litres of nuclear waste " discharged into it each day from Sellafield reprocessing plants, contaminating seawater, sediments and marine life. Low-level radioactive waste has been discharged into
1836-439: The bridge towers to be erected through Beaufort's Dyke , a 200–300 m (700–1,000 ft) deep trench, heavily contaminated by 'large quantities' of munitions ('small arms, high explosives and incendiary devices') and nuclear waste that had been dumped until 1950s. The ex- First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said her mind was not closed to the idea but added "if he [the prime minister] has got £20 bn to build such
1904-783: The sea duck , common scoter , spend winters feeding in shallow waters off eastern Ireland, Lancashire and North Wales . Whales, dolphins and porpoises all frequent the Irish Sea, but knowledge of how many there may be and where they go is somewhat sketchy. About a dozen species have been recorded since 1980, but only three are seen fairly often. These are the harbour porpoise , bottlenose dolphin and common dolphin . The more rarely seen species are minke whale , fin whale , sei whale , humpback whale , North Atlantic right whales which are now considered to be almost extinct in eastern North Atlantic, sperm whale , northern bottlenose whale , long-finned pilot whale , orca , white-beaked dolphin , striped dolphin and Risso's dolphin . In 2005,
1972-562: The British engineering firm Symonds. At 80 km (50 mi), it would have been by far the longest rail tunnel on earth with an estimated cost approaching £20 billion. An offshore wind farm was developed on the Arklow Bank, Arklow Bank Wind Park , about 10 km (6.2 mi) off the coast of County Wicklow in the south Irish Sea. The site currently has seven GE 3.6 MW turbines , each with 104-metre (341 ft) diameter rotors ,
2040-610: The Channel , for a better link between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. In August 2007 the Centre for Cross-Border Studies proposed the construction of a 34-kilometre-long (21 mi) long rail bridge or tunnel, estimating that it might cost about £3.5 billion. In the Victorian era , engineers proposed a rail tunnel between Stranraer and Belfast . In February 2020,
2108-563: The Dee Estuary and the estuaries are also important as nurseries for flatfish , herring and sea bass . Muddy seabeds in deeper waters are home to populations of the Dublin Bay prawn , also known as "scampi". The open sea is a complex habitat in its own right. It exists in three spatial dimensions and also varies over time and tide. For example, where freshwater flows into the Irish Sea in river estuaries its influence can extend far offshore as
Wigtown Bay - Misplaced Pages Continue
2176-478: The Dragon discovery. The most likely hydrocarbon source rocks are Early Jurassic marine mudstones. These are fully mature for oil generation in the west of the British sector and are mature for gas generation nearby in the Irish sector. Gas-prone, Westphalian pre-rift coal measures may also be present at depth locally. The Cardigan Bay Basin was subjected to two Tertiary phases of compressive uplift, whereas maximum burial that terminated primary hydrocarbon generation
2244-708: The East Irish Sea Basin is at a mature exploration phase. Early Namurian basinal mudstones are the source rocks for these hydrocarbons. Production from all fields is from fault-bounded traps of the Lower Triassic formation, principally the aeolian Sherwood Sandstone reservoir, top-sealed by younger Triassic continental mudstones and evaporites . Future mineral exploration will initially concentrate on extending this play , but there remains largely untested potential also for gas and oil within widespread Carboniferous fluvial sandstone reservoirs. This play requires intraformational mudstone seal units to be present, as there
2312-756: The Irish Sea and its surrounding coastline, ranging from flower-like fan-worms to predatory swimming crabs to large chameleon -like cuttlefish . Some of the most significant for other wildlife are the reef-building species like the inshore horse mussel of Strangford Lough, the inter-tidal honeycomb worm of Morecambe Bay, Cumbria and Lancashire , and the sub-tidal honeycomb worm of the Wicklow Reef . These build up large structures over many years and, in turn, provide surfaces, nooks and crannies where other marine animals and plants may become established and live out some or all of their lives. There are quite regular records of live and stranded leatherback turtles in and around
2380-449: The Irish Sea are of international importance for birds. They are vital feeding grounds on migration flyways for shorebirds travelling between the Arctic and Africa. Others depend on the milder climate as a refuge when continental Europe is in the grip of winter. Twenty-one species of seabird are reported as regularly nesting on beaches or cliffs around the Irish Sea. Huge populations of
2448-408: The Irish Sea as part of operations at Sellafield since 1952. The rate of discharge began to accelerate in the mid- to late 1960s, reaching a peak in the 1970s and generally declining significantly since then. As an example of this profile, discharges of plutonium (specifically Pu ) peaked in 1973 at 2,755 terabecquerels (74,500 Ci) falling to 8.1 TBq (220 Ci) by 2004. Improvements in
2516-466: The Irish Sea. This species travels north to the waters off the British Isles every year following the swarms of jellyfish that form its prey. Loggerhead turtle, ridley sea turtle and green turtle are found very occasionally in the Irish Sea but are generally unwell or dead when discovered. They have strayed or been swept out of their natural range further south into colder waters. The estuaries of
2584-470: The Isle of Man is particularly noted for its rarities and diversity, as are the horse mussel beds of Strangford Lough. Scallops and queen scallops are found in more gravelly areas. In the estuaries, where the bed is more sandy or muddy, the number of species is smaller but the size of their populations is larger. Brown shrimp , cockles and edible mussels support local fisheries in Morecambe Bay and
2652-756: The Middle Jurassic section. The Liverpool Bay Development was BHP 's largest operated asset. It comprises the integrated development of five offshore oil and gas fields in the Irish Sea: Oil is produced from the Lennox and Douglas fields. It is then treated at the Douglas Complex and piped 17 km (11 mi) to an oil storage barge ready for export by tankers. Gas is produced from the Hamilton, Hamilton North and Hamilton East reservoirs. After initial processing at
2720-411: The North Channel of around six months with peak concentrations off the northeast Irish coast occurring 18–24 months after peak discharge. Less soluble elements such as plutonium are subject to much slower redistribution. Whilst concentrations have declined in line with the reduction in discharges they are markedly higher in the eastern Irish Sea compared to the western areas. The dispersal of these elements
2788-611: The North Channel, which it also refers to parenthetically as the North (Irish) Channel, is part of the Ocean's Seven series. This is a set of seven long-distance open-water swims considered the marathon swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge . In Northern Ireland , Unionist political leaders for decades lobbied the British government to construct a railway tunnel under
Wigtown Bay - Misplaced Pages Continue
2856-471: The Prime Minister's Office announced that it had initiated work to examine the feasibility of a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland. The transport route with the shortest sailing distance is that between Campbeltown on the Kintyre peninsula (about 220 km (140 mi) from Glasgow via minor roads) and Ballycastle, County Antrim (about 90 km (56 mi) from Belfast ). Campbeltown
2924-529: The UK, the heaviest seafood consumers in Cumbria received a radioactive dosage attributable to Sellafield discharges of 220 μSv (0.022 rem) in 2005. This compares to average annual dose of naturally sourced radiation received in the UK of 2,230 μSv (0.223 rem). Discussions of linking Britain to Ireland began in 1895, with an application for £15,000 towards the cost of carrying out borings and soundings in
2992-400: The adjoining shores , the seabed and the open sea itself. The information on the invertebrates of the seabed of the Irish Sea is rather patchy because it is difficult to survey such a large area, where underwater visibility is often poor and information often depends upon looking at material brought up from the seabed in mechanical grabs. However, the groupings of animals present depend to
3060-605: The bay is formed by The Machars peninsula. This coast is itself indented by Rigg (or Cruggleton) Bay and by Garlieston Bay on which the village of Garlieston sits. The small town of Wigtown also stands on the western shore of the bay whilst the village of Creetown lies at the head of the bay. Wigtown Bay forms the largest local nature reserve in Britain. It has also been designated as a site of special scientific interest . A proposal to construct an offshore windfarm in Wigtown Bay
3128-555: The channel is the Beaufort's Dyke , at 312 metres (1,024 ft) it is the deepest part. The North Channel connects the Irish Sea with the Atlantic Ocean and is part of the marine area officially classified as the " Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland " by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). The Straits of Moyle ( Sruth na Maoile in Irish and Scottish Gaelic ) or Sea of Moyle
3196-426: The east. The depth of the western channel ranges from 80 m (260 ft) to 275 m (900 ft). Cardigan Bay in the south, and the waters to the east of the Isle of Man , are less than 50 m (160 ft) deep. With a total water volume of 2,430 km (580 cu mi) and a surface area of 47,000 km (18,000 sq mi), 80% is to the west of the Isle of Man. The largest sandbanks are
3264-531: The ferry Princess Victoria . The Irish Long Distance Swimming Association (ILDSA) has provided authentication observers for swimmers attempting to cross the approximately 35-kilometre (22 mi) span between Northern Ireland and the Mull of Galloway . According to the ILDSA, this was first accomplished in 1947 by Tom Blower . The first two-way crossing was completed by a six-person relay team on 28 July 2015. The World Open Water Swimming Association note that
3332-408: The freshwater is lighter and "floats" on top of the much larger body of salt water until wind and temperature changes mix it in. Similarly, warmer water is less dense and seawater warmed in the inter-tidal zone may "float" on the colder offshore water. The amount of light penetrating the seawater also varies with depth and turbidity. This leads to differing populations of plankton in different parts of
3400-720: The greatest wildlife resource of the Irish Sea lies in its estuaries : particularly the Dee Estuary , the Mersey Estuary , the Ribble Estuary , Morecambe Bay , the Solway Firth , the Firth of Clyde , Belfast Lough , Strangford Lough , Carlingford Lough , Dundalk Bay , Dublin Bay and Wexford Harbour . However, a lot of wildlife also depends on the cliffs, salt marshes and sand dunes of
3468-633: The late 12th century from Porthclais near St. Davids , Wales , in Hulks , Snekkars , Keels and Cogs to Wexford Harbour , Leinster . The Tudors crossed the Irish Sea to invade in 1529 in caravels and carracks . In 1690 the English fleet set sail for the Williamite War in Ireland from Hoylake , Wirral , the departure becoming permanently known as King's Gap as a result. Because Ireland has neither tunnel nor bridge to connect it with Great Britain ,
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#17328547051653536-555: The north, England to the east, Wales to the southeast, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to the west. The Irish Sea is of significant economic importance to regional trade, shipping and transport, as well as fishing and power generation in the form of wind power and nuclear power plants . Annual traffic between Great Britain and Ireland is over 12 million passengers and 17 million tonnes (17,000,000 long tons; 19,000,000 short tons) of traded goods. The Irish Sea joins
3604-542: The northwest at its head. The inner parts of the bay are characterized by large expanses of salt marsh and mudflats . The River Bladnoch flows into the estuarial section of the Cree near Wigtown . The Water of Fleet is a third significant river which enters Wigtown Bay via Fleet Bay on its eastern shore. At the mouth of Fleet Bay are the Islands of Fleet include Ardwall Island, Barlocco Isle and Murray’s Isles. The western shore of
3672-447: The partners are currently advancing a focused work programme in order to better understand and hopefully mitigate these risks. However, given its location in shallow water and close proximity to shore, the prospect is of great interest as exploration drilling, together with any future development costs, are likely to be low. Below is a list of cities and towns around the Irish Sea coasts in order of size: The most accessible and possibly
3740-640: The presence of a large undrilled structural closure at Lower Triassic level situated about 10 kilometres (6 mi) offshore Dublin. This feature, known as the Dalkey Island exploration prospect, may be prospective for oil, as there are prolific oil productive Lower Triassic reservoirs nearby in the eastern Irish Sea offshore Liverpool. Whilst the Dalkey Island exploration prospect could contain about 870 million barrels (140,000,000 m ) of oil in place, this undrilled prospect still has significant risk and
3808-401: The sea and varying communities of animals that feed on these populations. However, increasing seasonal storminess leads to greater mixing of water and tends to break down these divisions, which are more apparent when the weather is calm for long periods. Plankton includes bacteria, plants ( phytoplankton ) and animals ( zooplankton ) that drift in the sea. Most are microscopic, but some, such as
3876-455: The southeast of Caernarfon Bay are imaging a continuation of the dyke swarm into this area too, or whether they are instead associated with deeply buried Permian syn-rift volcanics . Alternatively, the fault block traps could have been recharged by exsolution of methane from formation brines as a direct result of the Tertiary uplift (cf. Doré and Jensen, 1996). The Cardigan Bay Basin forms
3944-858: The train and the ferry. The British ship LCT 326 sank in the Irish sea and was discovered in March 2020. In September 2021, the British Navy ship HMS Mercury was discovered; it sank in 1940. The British ship SS Mesaba was sunk by the Imperial German Navy U-118 in 1918 and discovered in 2022. This ship is well known for sailing near the Titanic and for attempting to warn the Titanic about dangerous icebergs. The Caernarfon Bay basin contains up to 7 cubic kilometres (1.7 cu mi) of Permian and Triassic syn-rift sediments in an asymmetrical graben that
4012-469: The treatment of waste in 1985 and 1994 resulted in further reductions in radioactive waste discharge although the subsequent processing of a backlog resulted in increased discharges of certain types of radioactive waste. Discharges of technetium in particular rose from 6.1 TBq (160 Ci) in 1993 to a peak of 192 TBq (5,200 Ci) in 1995 before dropping back to 14 TBq (380 Ci) in 2004. In total 22 petabecquerels (590 kCi) of Pu
4080-460: The various species of jellyfish and sea gooseberry , can be much bigger. Diatoms and dinoflagellates dominate the phytoplankton. Although they are microscopic plants, diatoms have hard shells and dinoflagellates have little tails that propel them through the water. Phytoplankton populations in the Irish Sea have a spring "bloom" every April and May, when the seawater is generally at its greenest. Crustaceans , especially copepods , dominate
4148-587: The vast majority of heavy goods trade is done by sea. Northern Ireland ports handle 10 million tonnes (9,800,000 long tons; 11,000,000 short tons) of goods trade with the rest of the United Kingdom annually; the ports in the Republic of Ireland handle 7.6 million tonnes (7,500,000 long tons; 8,400,000 short tons), representing 50% and 40% respectively of total trade by weight. The Port of Liverpool handles 32 million tonnes (31,000,000 long tons; 35,000,000 short tons) of cargo and 734,000 passengers
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#17328547051654216-515: The water in Liverpool Bay was historically contaminated by dumping of sewage sludge at sea but this practice became illegal in December 1988 and no further sludge was deposited after that date. With 210 billion cubic metres (7.5 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas and 176 million barrels (28,000,000 m ) of petroleum estimated by the field operators as initially recoverable hydrocarbon reserves from eight producing fields (DTI, 2001),
4284-410: The world's first commercial application of offshore wind turbines over three megawatts in size. The operating company, Airtricity , has indefinite plans for nearly 100 further turbines on the site. Further wind turbine sites include: North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland) The North Channel (known in Irish and Scottish Gaelic as Sruth na Maoile , in Scots as the Sheuch )
4352-465: The zooplankton. However, many animals of the seabed, the open sea and the seashore spend their juvenile stages as part of the zooplankton. The whole plankton "soup" is vitally important, directly or indirectly, as a food source for most species in the Irish Sea, even the largest. The enormous basking shark , for example, lives entirely on plankton and the leatherback turtle 's main food is jellyfish. A colossal diversity of invertebrate species live in
4420-413: Was a favourite haunt of privateers preying on British merchant shipping in wars until the 19th century; in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War , it was also the site of a naval duel between American captain John Paul Jones 's USS Ranger and the Royal Navy 's HMS Drake . It is crossed by many ferry services. In 1953, the channel was the scene of a serious maritime disaster, the sinking of
4488-510: Was discharged over the period 1952 to 1998. Current rates of discharge for many radionuclides are at least 100 times lower than they were in the 1970s. Analysis of the distribution of radioactive contamination after discharge reveals that mean sea currents result in much of the more soluble elements such as caesium being flushed out of the Irish Sea through the North Channel about a year after discharge. Measurements of technetium concentrations post-1994 has produced estimated transit times to
4556-469: Was probably around the end of the Cretaceous , or earlier if Cretaceous strata, now missing, were never deposited in the basin. Despite the Tertiary structuration, the Dragon discovery has proved that potentially commercial volumes of hydrocarbons were retained at least locally in Cardigan Bay. In addition to undrilled structural traps, the basin contains the untested potential for stratigraphic entrapment of hydrocarbons near synsedimentary faults, especially in
4624-581: Was turned down by the Scottish government in early 2011. The potential effect on tourism was cited as a major reason in the decision. The design of the floating Mulberry Harbour used in the successful invasion of Normandy by allied forces during the Second World War was tested in the bay where conditions were felt to be suitably similar to those of the Normandy coast. There was also a World War II Bay class frigate named Wigtown Bay 54°48′N 4°18′W / 54.800°N 4.300°W / 54.800; -4.300 Irish Sea The Irish Sea
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