NWIFCA’s district encompasses the entire coastline (approximately 850km) of North West England, from the Scottish to Welsh borders, its coastal councils’ landward areas, as well as its inshore coastal waters out to six nautical miles. NWIFCA is unique in that it is the only IFCA which does not share a jurisdictional border with any other IFCA.

Our district is one of diversity and contrast, with highly dynamic and ecologically productive marine environments existing alongside varying coastal communities, from the relatively low-density coastal populations of Cumbria in the north, to the more populated areas of Lancashire, Merseyside, and Cheshire. Within the district are many significant inshore marine environments, demonstrable by the fact that almost the entire North West’s coastal waters are designated as a Marine Protected Area of one form or another. Our estuarine and intertidal environments within the Solway Firth, Morecambe Bay, and the Duddon, Wyre, Ribble, Mersey, and Dee Estuaries are some of the most biologically diverse in the country and yield some significant fisheries for our commercial and recreational fishing stakeholders. Individually and collectively, these marine environments and fisheries are managed by the Authority to ensure they are maintained, and where necessary improved, for the benefit of all our current and future stakeholders.