Skomer Marine Nature Reserve is an underwater marine nature reserve located off the coast of Pembrokeshire in Wales. This is one of only two marine reserves in Britain. The reserve completely surrounds the islands of Skomer and Middleholm, and encompasses the mainland coastline around the end of the Marloes peninsula, including the small bay of Martin's Haven.
The sea bed and rocky shelves of the island are teeming with life. Common eelgrass, Zostera marina, one of the very few plants that flower underwater, grows on beds of sand and gravel in sheltered waters and its long, grass-like leaves form underwater lawns that provide food and shelter for other plants and animals. Species of lobsters, crabs and other crustaceans abound, and grey seals give birth on the coast in October and November.
Famous quotes containing the words marine, nature and/or reserve:
“God has a hard-on for a Marine because we kill everything we see. He plays His game, we play ours.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“But speak the truth, and all nature and all spirits help you with unexpected furtherance. Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We must reserve a back shop all our own, entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)