Cork Harbour is a sheltered coastal environment, with a diverse natural heritage that accommodates a range of activities and uses.
The topography of the landscape is gently undulating, with a mixed coastline consisting of built infrastructure, shallow cliffs, intertidal mudflats, reed beds, shingle and rocky foreshores. The western extent of the Harbour is characterised by estuarine influences where the River Lee discharges to the complex estuary zone.
The navigation channel in the Harbour is maintained at a depth of 11m for shipping and maritime transport.
Cork Harbour is of major international importance for waders (20,000) and wildfowl (5,000), particularly winter migrants, which are supported by its extensive mudflat areas around Lough Mahon, the Douglas Estuary and the North Channel, Lough Beg, Saleen, Rostellan and Whitegate. As a consequence, Cork Harbour is designated as both a Ramsar wetland site of international importance and a Special Protection Area for birds. |
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Other designations within the Harbour protect important habitats of salt marsh, reedbed and intertidal mudflat. They include candidate Special Areas of Conservation (Great Island Channel) and proposed Natural Heritage Areas (Douglas Estuary, Great Island Channel, Lough Beg, Rostellan Lough/Aghada Shore/Poulnabibe inlet, Whitegate Bay, Cuskinny Marsh).
The River Lee is also designated as a salmonid river under the EC Directive on the quality of fresh waters needing protection or improvement in order to support fish life. This provides an obligation to maintain specific water quality standards and to control pollution in this area.
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Protected fauna occasionally seen in the Harbour include the otter (Lutra lutra), the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) and the common seal (Phoca vitulina). Cetaceans such as common dolphins (Delphinus delphina) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are also regular visitors to the Harbour. In summer 2001, the arrival of a pod of three Orca whales (Orcinus orca) in Cork Harbour attracted attention from local spectators and national media.
The main fishing activities within the harbour are potting for shrimp, crab and lobster and to a lesser extent small boat trawling for flounder, plaice and codling. A short season for pelagic trawling for sprat is carried out in winter. The Harbour waters supply important spawning and nursery areas for sea fish species. |
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Cork Harbour has been described as a thriving mixed coastal zone in a distinctive landscape setting. Most of the landscapes within Cork Harbour contain a coastal element and there exists an obvious inter-visibility between land and sea components. Landscape characteristics include cliff coastlines with open and expansive sea views at the Harbour mouth, to rocky or muddy shores backed by urban industrial settings further inshore.
While contemporary use of large tracts of the Harbour is marked by concentrations of urban populations, and chemical and pharmaceutical industries, much of the coast remains unspoilt and characterised by rural agricultural land-use or protected habitats, with reduced influences from human activities |
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