Poole Rocks Marine Conservation Zone lies a few kilometres off Sandbanks, at the point where the sediment floor of Poole Bay gives way to low rocky outcrops. It is a protected area of seabed that is invisible from the beach yet important below the surface. It gained its designation in November 2013 as one of the first 27 Marine Conservation Zones in English waters, part of a national programme to let fragile marine habitats recover from dredging, trawling and other harmful activity.
The habitat under protection
Where most of the surrounding bay is sandy, the reef here is rock, and because the water is more turbid the rock carries an "animal turf" of sponges, bryozoans and hydroids instead of seaweed. Wildlife does well on it. Records include the nationally scarce Couch's goby, shoaling pollack and pouting, several species of wrasse, and native oysters lodged between the rocks and in the sediment.
Getting to Poole Rocks
You cannot reach it from the shore: Poole Rocks is about 2km east of the Poole Harbour entrance and accessible only by boat. Seasearch volunteer divers visit often to survey the reef's marine life for conservation records, and recreational boat users and anglers may still use the area, although bottom-towed fishing gear is restricted to safeguard the seabed. Check the current byelaws before diving or fishing here.
Poole Rocks is one of a number of protected marine sites along this part of the Dorset coast. For more of the area, see our guide to things to do in Bournemouth.