Mixon Hole off Selsey
The Mixon Hole is designated as a Marine Conservation Zone. Its clay cliffs capped with limestone are home to a rich biodiversity of habits and marine life. A popular dive site, divers visit from across the country, returning year after year to discover the diverse sealife living within its 20m depths.
The Mixon Hole, under a mile from RNLI Selsey Lifeboat Station sits at the eastern end of the Looe Channel which connects the Solent to the Eastern Channel. It is one of the best examples of peat and clay exposures on the southeast coast of England.
It is home to a diverse range of marine life, including :
Fish
- Lesser spotted catsharks
- Bib/Pouting
- Ballan Wrasse
- Corkwing Wrasse
- Tompot Blenny
- Shanny
- Two Spot Goby
- Painted Goby
- Various small Gobies
- Dragonets
- Grey Triggerfish
Hydroids & Anemones
- Squirrel’s tail and antenna hydroids
- Snakelocks and dahlia anemone
- Barnacles, crabs and lobsters
Barnacles Squat Lobster
Sponge Spider crabs
Edible Brown Crab (Selsey Crab)
Velvet Swimming Crab - Sponges
• Purse Sponge
• Sea orange
• Shredded Carrot Sponge
• Various encrusting sponges
• Goosebump sponge
Molluscs
• European Oyster
• Cuttlefish
• Grey topshell
• Painted topshell
• Slipper limpet
• Arctic Cowrie
• Sting Winkle
• Common Whelk
• Netted Dog Whelk
• Blue mussel
• Common Piddock
Worms
• vermicelli and keel worms
Horseshoe Worms
Sea mats and sea mosses
• Finger Bryozoan
• Sea Mat
• Frosty Sea Mat
• Hornwrack
• Spiral Bryozoans
• Encrusting Bryozoans
• Snakes head Coralline
Sea Squirts
• Perforated Sea Squirt
• Gooseberry Sea Squirt
Seaweeds
• Encrusting pink algae
• Fringe Weed
• Red Rags
• Caragheen
• Discoid Fork Weed
• Shepherd’s Purse Wart Weed
• Banded Pincer Weed
• Sea Horsetail
• Mrs Griffith’s Little Flower
• Siphoned Feather Weed
• Fine-veined Crinkle Weed
• Sea Beech
• Red Sea Pine
• Whorled Bush Weed
• Various Red Seaweeds
• Hairy Sponge Weed
• Brown Fan Weed
• Oarweed
• Sugar Kelp
• Furbellows
• Podweed
• Wireweed (japweed)