RSPB Wildlife Explorersis the junior membership of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Please help us raise money for our “I’m on the sea’s side” appeal. Visit RSPB Wildlife Explorers atwww.rspb.org.uk/youth

Where is the most colourful,exciting, stunning wildlife in the country? For me, it liesunder the sea. I’ve alwaysbeen gripped by marine lifeand I’ll take any chance I canto grab my diving kit and dipmy head beneath the waves to see what’s below.

Half of all the UK’s wildlife is foundat sea, so it’s easy to understandwhy it’s important to protect allthose creatures which live there, or depend on it for food. But wedon’t. There are hundreds of naturereserves on land, but fewer at seathan the fingers on my hand. Manysea creatures are at risk becausethey’re simply not protected.

The RSPB has a chance to dosomething about looking after sealife this year and we’re asking foryour help. I’m on the sea’s side, are you?

Kate HumbleRSPB President

Kate’s favouriteanimal is… a slugBut what a slug! Thisamazing-looking creatureis called a sea slug and it wears the top colours on the sea’s bottom. Sea slugs are usually

less than 10 cm long, so you could fit one in the palm of your hand. But you wouldn’t want to touch them, as mostshoot out a poisonous liquid or acid to defend themselves from predators!

Sea slugs come in many shapes and sizes, some withtentacles, some have see-through bodies, some have beautiful colours and some blend in with the sandy seabed.Bet you didn’t know such dazzling animals live in the UK?

The seas around the UK – the English Channel, Irish Sea and the North Sea – are amazing places. Their area totals more than threetimes our land area and some places are over twice as deep as ourtallest mountain, Ben Nevis. To put it another way, it would take about2,000 children standing on each other’s shoulders on the seabed totouch the surface in these deepest parts. Our seas range from beingwarm at the coast (though it might not feel like it when you go for apaddle!) to some more remote parts that rarely get above 0°C.

At first glance, it may look like there is not much going on beneath the waves, but these seas are bursting with a wide range of life.Because we are an island nation, wherever you live, the sea is never too far away if you want to pay a visit. Here are some of the amazing animals that live in or depend upon our seas.

Guillemots spend most of their lives at sea, onlysetting foot on land whenthey are nesting. They neston tiny ledges on very steepcliffs, so their eggs are pear-shaped to stop them rollingover the edge. Try rolling apear and apple at home ona table – the round applewill roll straight off the table,but pears just roll around incircles. Guillemots dive deepunderwater for fish usingtheir wings as paddles.

This beautiful animallives at sea, but despiteits name, it is not relatedto a horse. Seahorsesare actually fish and arefound all around theworld, usually in warm,shallow waters. Theseahorse is the onlyanimal where the malegives birth. The femalepushes her eggs into apouch on his front andhe keeps the growingyoung there until theyare big enough to popout into the sea.

If you’ve ever been to the seaside, youwill almost certainly have seen a limpet.Although they may look boring, they are really quite fascinating. Limpets stick themselves to a rock with theirgiant foot and grind their shell downonto it until they fit perfectly. This is their home spot and after they have been off to feed, they will always return homeafterwards. They leave a trail of mucus to find their way back again.

Limpets are small but they are no pushover. If a starfishtries to get under a limpet shell to eat it, instead of holdingeven tighter to the rock, the limpet lifts up its shell and then slams it down again to crush the starfish’s feelers!

These marinemammals are clever, playful and very curious.Have you ever been in a boat and seen a dolphin swim up to find out whatyou’re doing? A group of dolphins is called a school.Dolphins often gatherin schools and worktogether to catch fish.

Can you see the beautiful, coloured stripes on the puffin’s beak? Those coloured parts drop offat the end of the breeding season, so duringwinter, puffins just have a plain grey beak. Theycan hold up to 10 small fish at a time in theirbeaks without swallowing or dropping them.They do this by gripping the fish with little spikes in their mouth and beak.

Puffins nest in burrows in the ground, and they return to the same one each year. Theirburrows are up to two metres long and theirsingle egg is safely tucked away in a littlechamber at the end of the tunnel.

You might recognise the name cod from seeing itin fish and chip shops, but do you know what thisfish looks like alive in the wild? Cod have prettyfins and their bodies are greeny-brown with astreak of silver down their sides. They can growup to two metres long and live for 25 years.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no.207076, Scotland no. SC037654 465-0911-0910 Cartoons by Anthony Rule Cover puffin by Mark Sisson, guillemot by Laurie Campbell and puffin by Mark Hamblin (all rspb-images.com), sea slug by Paul Naylor and other photos by Alamy Images and iStockphoto.com

Sadly, theseanimals and all others that

live in or depend on the sea are under

threat. As well as being a home for wildlife, the sea is

used by people for all kinds of activities, including fishing,building ports and harbours, laying pipes and cables onthe seabed for oil and gas, and dredging for aggregates(this is where boats with huge machines like vacuumcleaners suck up sand and gravel for us to build with).These activities are very harmful to the creatures that live in the sea and cause damage to their habitats. And it doesn’t end there – birds that feed at seasometimes don’t have enough to eat or can becomecaught on fishing hooks or tangled in nets.

Until now, we’ve not been able to protect areas of thesea for wildlife like we do on land. People need to workat sea, but if this work takes place in the wrong areas itcan be very bad news for the creatures that live there.

Luckily, new laws mean that there can now be naturereserves at sea. This will give creatures that live in ordepend upon the sea, safe areas to live and feed. The new laws will cover the seas around England andWales. We expect similar laws for Scottish seas shortlyand hope that Northern Ireland won’t be too far behind.

We need marine protected areas to be the best theypossibly can be. Before they are set up, we have toidentify the best locations, as not all areas of the seaare as full of wildlife as others. We need your help by raising money so that we can fight for the rightareas to be protected.

There are plenty of ways you could fundraise.Why not do a sponsored swim, or a sponsoredsilence? You could organise a jumble or toy sale, or make cakes and sell them. Get your friends orfamily, your class or group together, to come up with some ideas and pledge their support. Together,we can ensure that the best possible areas of UK seas are protected for our fantastic sea life.

Please use the sponsor form that came with this leaflet and photocopy it if you need further copies. Alternatively, you can download it fromwww.rspb.org.uk/youth, write to RSPB WildlifeExplorers, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL,ring 01767 680551 or e-mail explorers@rspb.org.uk and we’ll send you one.

If you raise money for our appeal,we’ll send you a thank youcertificate and sets of stickers.

BREAKING NEWS!The seas around Lundy Island in Devon have become the firstMarine Conservation Zone (MCZ) in England, set up under thenew Marine and Coastal Access Act. The waters are home to all kinds of marine life, from lobsters to pink sea fan corals.Fishing is already prohibited in this area, but it now has specialprotection to restrict other human activity that might causedamage. For more information, visit

www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/marine/protectandmanage/mpa/lundy.aspx