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Gravel and coarse sand with shell gravel often contains communities of robust venerid bivalves (SS.SCS.CCS.MedLumVen). Shallower examples, such as the biotope presented here, may support a significant population of Branchiostoma lanceolatum. Other conspicuous infauna may include Echinocyamus pusillus, Glycera lapidum, Polygordius, Pisione remota, and Arcopagia crassa (in the south of the UK). Sessile epifauna are typically a minor component of this community. This biotope has been described from a limited number of records and as such may need revising when further data become available. Variants to this biotope may occur in deeper, circalittoral waters, with slightly muddy or gravelly sediments. These transitional forms of the biotope to muddier, or more gravelly sediments may be characterised by polychaetes such as Notomastus latericeus, and the amphipod Urothoe marina. This biotope is related to the 'Boreal Offshore Gravel Association' and 'Deep Venus Community' described by other workers (Ford 1923; Jones 1951), and may also be closely associated with the 'Venus fasciata' community of Cabioch (Glemarec 1973). This biotope may be an epibiotic overlay of the biotope SS.SCS.ICS.MoeVen or SS.SCS.CCS.MedLumVen.

Circalittoral and offshore medium to fine sand (from 40 m to 140 m) characterised by the pea urchin Echinocyamus pusillus, the polychaete Ophelia borealis and the bivalve Abra prismatica. Other species may include the polychaetes Spiophanes bombyx, Pholoe sp., Exogone spp., Sphaerosyllis bulbosa, Goniada maculata, Chaetozone setosa, Owenia fusiformis, Glycera lapidum, Lumbrineris latreilli and Aricidea cerrutii. The bivalves Thracia phaseolina and Asbjornsenia pygmaea and to a lesser extent Spisula elliptica and Timoclea ovata may also be present. This biotope has been found in the central and northern North Sea. In offshore sandier or gravelly sand sediments in the Western Channel and Celitc sea, the biotope may support species indicative of sandy, muddy and mixed sediment. This variant shares the characteristic fauna of Echinocyamus pusillus amongst others, but also supports a wider variety of polychaete worms such as Spiophanes kroyeri, Magelona sp. and Tharyx killariensis, and may represent the transition to the biotope SS.SCS.CCS.Blan.