SDG 14 – Life Below Water – Wigtown Bay
An estuary of the River Bladnoch and the River Cree, Wigtown Bay is home to the largest Local Nature Reserve in Britain. Known for its vast areas of salt marsh and mudflats, it provides an ideal habitat for diverse wildlife – most notably providing a home to a wealth of winter gatherings of wildfowl and waders, as well as salt-tolerant plants and fish. Salt marshes, in particular, serve as great nurseries for many fish and crustaceans thanks to the considerable presence of vascular plant debris and the security it provides from predators. A significant percentage of fisheries species such as finfish and shellfish populate saltmarshes, showcasing the importance of Wigtown Bay as an integral element of biodiversity and its self-regulating ecosystem – effectively contributing to the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 ‘Life Below Water’.