Deep Sea Habitats

These are habitats occurring beyond the continental shelf break at depths typically greater than around 200m. Knowledge of these habitats is very patchy and limited but is growing all the time, revealing more and more about the rich diversity of life found in the deep waters off Scotland. These habitats are found almost entirely to the north and west of Scotland and comprise cold water coral reefs, coral carbonate mounds, submarine canyons, sea mounts and deep sea sediments. There is relatively little abyssal plain habitat within the boundaries of Scottish waters.