{"id":673233,"date":"2026-07-04T10:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673233\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:12:08","slug":"amazing-footage-captures-marine-life-off-sheringham-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673233\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazing footage captures marine life off Sheringham coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  A diver has captured the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edp24.co.uk\/news\/20745677.marine-wonderland-just-metres-coast-caught-camera\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">teeming life of the North Norfolk Chalk Reef<\/a> as he enjoyed snorkelling among a variety of aquatic marvels, such as graceful jellyfish, velvet swimming crabs and endangered eels.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"drone view of chalk reef\"\/>Sheringham&#8217;s Chalk Reef (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The reef is one of Europe\u2019s largest chalk reef systems, just metres from the beach. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It\u00a0is often compared to a \u201cmini Great Barrier Reef\u201d for its gullies, ledges and spectacular biodiversity.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Pink jellyfish\"\/>Jellyfish seen in Sheringham Chalk Reef (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Christ Taylor, 54 and a photographer from Sheringham, took a dive while the waters were calm. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Snorkelling man\"\/>Chris Taylor, photographer from Sheringham (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Taylor caught 4K footage of moon and compass jellyfish, comb jellies, wrasse, velvet swimming crabs, brown edible crab and even a critically endangered European eel hiding in the seaweed.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Moon Jellyfish\"\/>Moon jellyfish (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: \u201cNormally we don\u2019t get weather this calm until August, when the sediment finally settles again.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI\u2019ve never known it to be this clear this early. This was the best underwater visibility I\u2019ve ever experienced off Sheringham in June.\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"A critically endangered European Eel hiding amongst the seaweed\"\/>A critically endangered European eel hiding amongst the seaweed (Image: Christ Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The endangered eel was seen only 25 meters from the shoreline, although Mr Taylor travelled 100 to 150 meters offshore. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Taylor has been swimming in the reef since he was a teenager and he said it is a special place with lots of colourful, interesting species contributing to the reef in their own way. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Chalk Reef Life\"\/>Sheringham&#8217;s Chalk Reef is visible in calm weathers (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: \u201cYou never know what you\u2019re going to find off the shores here, and that\u2019s what makes it so exciting.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe only get a really small window each year when the conditions are good enough to see it.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThe wildlife is there all year, but we literally only have a handful of days when the reef becomes visible like this.\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Bobtail Squid\"\/>Bobtail squid (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The footage caught a lot of attention online, with many unaware that so much marine life thrives near the blue flag beach. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  With further hot weather on the horizon, snorkellers are planning more daytime excursions as well as night swims, when \u201ca completely different underwater world comes to life after dark&#8221;.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Taylor said: \u201cNight snorkels are incredible. It\u2019s a whole other world at night.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cYou almost become part of the environment.\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Lobster in reef\"\/>Lobster seen in Sheringham Reef (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Having lived in Sheringham his whole life and working for 25 years on the town&#8217;s lifeboat as crew\u00a0and a\u00a0helmsman, Mr Taylor said it is a privilege to be able to show people what is out there. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: \u201cIt amazes me how many people don\u2019t realise what\u2019s\u00a0a stone&#8217;s throw from shore.\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The nature lover said he hopes his videos spread awareness of how damaging littering the beach can be. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Snorkller and Moon Jellyfish\"\/>A diver with a moon jellyfish (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He said: \u201cIt\u2019s disgusting seeing people leave rubbish on the beach.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThis isn\u2019t a dirty brown beach,\u00a0I hope these videos show people the wildlife that\u2019s out there and make them realise they\u2019re damaging something incredible.\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Velvet swimming crab\"\/>Velvet swimming crab (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  For those wanting to give snorkelling a go at the reef, Mr Taylor has reminded people to be respectful of the marine life as well as being safe. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Swimming along the Sheringham snorkel trail, which follows an abandoned sewage pipe, is recommended for beginners. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A diver has captured the teeming life of the North Norfolk Chalk Reef as he enjoyed snorkelling among&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-673233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}