[6] It is part of the Berney Marshes and Breydon Water nature reserve, which is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

In the winter, large numbers of wading birds and wildfowl use it to overwinter, including 12,000 golden plovers, 12,000 wigeons, 32,000 lapwings and tens of thousands of Bewick's swans.

Other species that have been noted there include dunlin, sanderling, Eurasian whimbrel, several (escaped) flamingos, pied avocets and on one occasion a glossy ibis.

Naturalist Arthur Henry Patterson (1857–1935), who published under the pseudonym "John Knowlittle", extensively documented the wildlife of Breydon and the disappearing lifestyles of the boatmen, wildfowlers and fishermen who made a living from the estuary.

[8] Short sections of the Wherryman's Way and Weavers' Way long-distance paths follow the northern bank of the estuary from Yarmouth to Berney Arms, a distance of about 5 miles.