Chesil Cove

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Chesil Cove at Chiswell with Chesil Beach stretching off into the distance

Chesil Cove is a beach which is the most southerly part of the 18-mile (29 km) long Chesil Beach in Dorset, England.

The beach protects the low lying village of Chiswell in Underhill on the Isle of Portland from flooding.

1 Diving
2 Fishing
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Diving

Chesil Cove is also a haven for scuba divers, who flock from around Britain to dive it. The cove being a reasonably shallow (10 to 15 metre / 33 to 50 feet) shore dive, which suffers little from tidal current, is an ideal site for increasing the experience of trainee divers. The cove has an interesting selection of south coast marine life such as nudibranch, dogfish, spider crab, lobster, cuttle fish, pipefish and John Dory.

In the age of sail Portland was a barrier preventing the escape of sailing ships from the lee shore and the cove being deep in the eastern end of the Lyme Bay was where some of those ships came ashore. Although there have been many shipwrecks in the cove, few significant divable remains exist close to the beach.

[edit] Fishing

Through fishing, the beach provided the main occupation for the villagers of Chiswell and the rest of the islanders. The beach is still used by sea anglers and the British shore-captured rockling record was set there in 1992. ^[1] ^[2]