The Menai Strait – a magical stretch of sea that separates the Isle of Anglesey from mainland Wales – is the subject of a four-part documentary series on ITV.

The ITV series, The Island Strait, captures the Menai Strait over all four seasons and the life cycle of the women and men who live there.

The Menai Strait, or Afon Menai as it is known locally, is connected to the mainland by Thomas Telford’s Menai Suspension Bridge and Robert Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge.

A unique stretch of saltwater river, the central region of the Menai Street – between the two bridges – is known as the “Swellies”. This is a unique environment with a strong, reversing tidal flows, rapid currents and swirling whirlpools.

The Strait is also a marine Special Area of Conservation (SAC), with a rich variety of habitats including sea inlets and estuaries, mud and sand flats, lagoons, salt marsh, shingle beaches, sea cliffs and submerged limestone reefs.

The four-part The Island Strait series tells the stories of the characters who earn their livelihoods on and around the Menai Strait. They include a conservationist, a landscape photographer, boatmen, a marine geologist, a sea zookeeper, and water activities instructors.

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief @rosamedea