Looe is a popular seaside town in South East Cornwall with amazing marine habitats and a maritime heritage stretching back for centuries.
Here you can see grey seals hauled out on Looe Island, rare black backed gulls swooping to feed their young, egrets and herons wading on the riverbed, and an abundance of anemones, starfish and crabs in our rockpools. The eelgrass beds off East Looe are some of the most extensive in the region and could provide a home for sea horses. If you’re lucky, you might spot dolphins and basking sharks in the waters of Looe Bay.
With extensive rocky shore habitats, a tidal river estuary and an island nature reserve, Looe provides a home to an exceptional variety of marine and bird life. The area of Whitsand and Looe Bay was declared a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) in 2013 giving special status and protection for its key features. Even before the MCZ, the local community recognised the area’s amazing and unique habitats by setting up a voluntary marine conservation area (VMCA) in Looe in 1995, one of 5 such areas across Cornwall.
We, the Looe Marine Conservation Group, want you to discover, explore and learn more about this very special area, which encompasses Looe Island, the seashore from the Hore Stone to the Limmicks and the tidal reaches of the East and West Looe Rivers.
Whether you’re planning to visit Looe on holiday, live in Looe or within a day trip of Looe, or whether you enjoy marine life browsing our photo galleries from the comfort of your armchair, we want you to enjoy the wonders of Looe’s Inspiring Seashore and help support the aims of our voluntary Looe Marine Conservation Group, to protect and preserve the marine wildlife and habitats of Looe for future generations.