Dogger Bank

Location of the Dogger Bank

For the former landmass in the southern North Sea that connected the island of Great Britain to mainland Europe, see Doggerland.

Dogger Bank is a large sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea about 100 kilometres (62 miles) off the east coast of England.

Dogger Bank extends over approximately 17,600 km² (6,800 sq mi), with its dimensions being about 260 km (160 mi) long and up to 97 km (60 mi) broad.

The water depth ranges from 15 to 36 metres (from 49 to 118 feet), about 20 m (66 ft) shallower than the surrounding sea. It is a productive fishing bank. The name comes from dogger, an old Dutch word for fishing boat, especially for catching cod.

Geography

Geologically, the feature is most likely a moraine, formed during the Pleistocene. At differing times during the last ice age it was either joined to the mainland or an island. The bank was part of a large landmass, known as Doggerland, which connected Britain to the European mainland until it was flooded some time after the end of the last ice age.

Fishing trawlers working the area have dredged up large amounts of moor peat, remains of mammoth and rhinoceros, and occasionally Paleolithic hunting artefacts.

In 1931, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom took place below the bank, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale. Its focus was 23 km beneath the bank, and the quake was felt in countries all around the North Sea, causing damage across eastern England.

Naval battles and incidents

The bank has been the site of several naval actions:

• During the Nine Years' War on 18 June 1696 a French fleet under the command of Jean Bart was victorious over the ships of the Grand Alliance.
• During the War of American Independence, a Royal Navy squadron fought a Dutch squadron on 5 August 1781 in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
• During the Russo-Japanese War, Russian naval ships opened fire on British fishing boats in the Dogger Bank incident on 21 October 1904, mistaking them for Japanese torpedo boats.
• In the First World War, the area saw battles in 1915 and 1916 between the Royal Navy and the German High Seas Fleet.
• In 1966, the German submarine U-Hai sank during a gale. 19 of 20 men died, one of the worst peacetime naval disasters in German history.

Environmental

Map showing hypothetical extent of Doggerland (c. 8,000 BCE), which provided a land bridge between Great Britain and continental Europe.

The bank is an important fishing area, with cod and herring being caught in large numbers. It gives its name to the Dogger sea area used in the BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast. Several shipwrecks lie on the bank.

Dogger Bank has been identified as an oceanic environment that exhibits high primary productivity throughout the year in the form of phytoplankton. As such, it has been proposed by various groups to designate the area a Marine Nature Reserve.

Wind farm

Main article: Wind power in the United Kingdom

In January 2010, a licence to develop a wind farm on Dogger Bank was granted to Forewind Ltd, a consortium of developers. The wind farm is projected to develop up to 9 gigawatts of power, as part of a planned nine zone project of 32 gigawatts.

Construction is scheduled to start around 2014 at the earliest.

In popular culture

Typically Dogger Bank only shows up in documentaries about WWI and the pre-history of Briton & Ireland.

Prehistoric context (primarily as Doggerland)

• The Story of Scotland - Before Scotland (2009) Parts 1 & 2 (BBC, 2009)

World War I (as Dogger Bank)

• The Great War (BBC, 1965)

See also

• Dogger (boat), a type of fishing boat associated with the Dogger Bank area.
• Fishing in the North Sea