Information to mariners on the Dee estuary

The Dee conservancy is the harbour, navigation and local lighthouse authority for most of the Dee Estuary in North Wales.

It was created by the Dee Conservancy Act of 1889 to conserve, improve and control navigation of the River Dee between Chester and the estuary mouth.

Natural Resources Wales now carries out the duties and obligations of the Dee Conservancy.

Important information for mariners

If you are coming into the Dee Estuary, please check the Notices to Mariners for the latest issues.

Safety at sea

The Maritime and Coastguide Agency has produced a new Fishermen's Safety Guide (2020)

We strongly advise all users of the Conservancy to discuss their activity in the Dee Estuary with the Harbour Master. It is essential that all commercial operations are discussed and agreed with the Harbour master beforehand, in order to avoid conflict with any other on-going maritime operations in the estuary.

The Harbour master may be contacted during office hours at:

Dee Conservancy Harbour Master
c/o Strategic Marine Services Limited
Unit 14, Chapel Court Enterprise Center
Wervin Road
Wervin
Chester
CH2 4BP
Tel: 01244 371428

email: harbourmaster@deeconservancy.org 

In the case of an emergency out of hours, you can contact the Harbour master by calling our incident hot line:

• call 0300 065 3000
• select 1 for Welsh language or 2 for English language service
• press 1 for the 24 hour incident reporting line