Intense localized productivity in the Irish Sea

The variability of primary productivity in surface waters was continuously recorded during spatial and sectional surveys of the Irish Sea in the summer of 1977. Localized patches of intense productivity were found, not in the frontal region of the western Irish Sea, but farther east. Subsurface distributions of physical, chemical and biological characteristics through a latitudinal section of the Irish Sea are reported. These data showed that the productivity peaks occurred at the boundaries of a water type exhibiting properties uncharacteristic of Irish Sea waters.