Hamford Water

It is also a Ramsar site, a Special Protection Area, a Nature Conservation Review site, and most of it is a National Nature Reserve. Two small areas, Skippers Island and John Weston Nature Reserve, are managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.

Most of Bramble Island (now part of the mainland) is used by Exchem for explosives testing.

The area was used as the basis for Arthur Ransome's novel Secret Water.