The Chagos Conservation Trust reports that in the year to April 2012 “…there was significant progress in developing and prioritising the necessary scientific research to support the conservation and long-term management of the world’s largest no-take marine reserve. Crucially, too, there has been a dramatic increase in the interest and involvement of the international scientific community in research relating to the Chagos archipelago.”

The full report is available from their website through the link below:

Chagos Anniversary Progress Report (PDF 172kB)

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Lochaline has become firm favourite and a regular Easter venue for members of the group over the last few years. This year six members and a friend spent four very pleasant days in this wonderful location.  Beautiful coastal scenery, excellent walking, places to visit, and the diving is also very good as well.  A walk along the Western shore of the loch passes a large silica sand mine, the white sand spilling out onto the shore creating what could  easily be mistaken for tropical coral sand beaches. Sand from the mine was used to produce high quality optical lenses for gun sights etc. during WW2.  Continuing along the loch there are a number of quite interesting geological features and on the loch itself many different species of water bird can be seen, Grey herons around every corner.  One member of our party out kayaking on the loch was fortunate enough to have a very close encounter with otters, the rest of us were green with envy.  Follow the track around the head of the loch and along the eastern shore to where a small stream tumbles down a small steep valley.  Search amongst the boulders and stones in the stream bed and you will be sure to find fossil oysters called Gryphaea that lived on the muddy shoreline of a tropical sea 200 million years ago.  Most of the diving  was from the easy access Hotel beach which leads gently down over the white sand with lots of tube anemones, Cerianthus lloydii to the top of the Lochaline wall,  an almost vertical rock face plunging down to great depths, well beyond the reach of most sport divers. Spectacular diving with a tremendous diversity of life, we have recorded more than 120 different species on the wall  to date with a new sighting this visit of a cuttle fish, Sepia officinalis to be added. There is still much more to be be recorded on future visits. There was also a dive on the shallow sea grass beds at Rubha-nan-Sornagon, Loch Linnhe, plenty of interesting marine life, notably lots of sea potatoes, Echinocardium pennatifidum.  Overall an excellent few days, with thanks to organisers, Barry & Jo, and the good weather was an added bonus.

Weather conditions for the site had been perfect for more than a week, so we travelled to Roa Island on Sunday 1st. April with high expectations of having a good interesting dive. Looking down on the water from the lifeboat gantry the conditions looked OK, so we kitted up and took the plunge.  Much to our surprise after we had covered only a few metres from the shore  the underwater visibility was no more than half a metre. It was quite light but there was very fine silt suspended in the water. As we progressed deeper it became more and more gloomy. At the deepest point (10.7m) in the middle of the channel it was completely dark and impossible to see anything. We swam slowly back up the slope to into shallower water, about (5m deep). here the bright sun penetrated the silty water a little more and the diverse marine life that we are used to seeing in the channel came into view. In the very small field of vision there were numerous species of crab, tiny anemones, sponges, common whelks, mussels and a small number of the  beautiful hydroid, Tubularia indivisa with tentacles extended. On returning to shore we  discovered that dredging operations were being carried out in the Channel and had been for a number of days.  This was the reason for the poor visibility and our far less than perfect dive. It was though the first of April !

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Work by the Lancashire MCS group recording the Piel Channel is now available online. The work dates from the late 1980’s to the present day.

Thanks to Ron for bringing the data together for this; the full report is available through the link below:

Piel Channel survey