Gallanach, near Oban, is an old favourite of the group, with an interesting dive from the camping field on the shore. This year we carried out some preliminary survey work here, and at the inner basin in Loch Creran, with the option of extending it into a broader project next year for everyone to get their teeth into. We also had one dive on the wormery in Loch Creran – where we spotted a number of blue variants of the reef building worm Serpula vermicularis (previously we have reported a colour range between white and brick red).

One of the nice surprises at Gallanach was a cooperative curled octopus (Eledone cirrhosa, shown above), who hung about for a few photographs.

We are currently working up the dive notes for a first stab at a survey for our survey pages.

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Images and sea-life survey information from the Lancashire MCS group’s dives around Calve Island, Tobermory Bay have been converted into a display at the Mull Visitor Centre. We hope this will encourage people to take more interest in the (usually) unseen wildlife around our coasts, and recognise it as forming unique and precious ecosystems.

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Visit Mull visitor centre, Tobermory for opening times and other information.

After watching a dredger make its way up the channel towards Barrow we really didn’t expect much from this dive, but the weather was good, and we hoped that there would be some visibility… As it turned out the dive was very pleasant, with between 50cm and 1m visibility – in fact good enough for a few photographs!

Ron confirmed that there was kelp (Laminaria hyperborea) in the channel at a depth of between 3 and 5m (below LWM) – the individuals are very stunted (about 1m in length) perhaps due to the lack of light, though poor footings for their holdfasts may mean that larger individuals will get washed away! There is rather more red algae, but sessile animals dominate the ecosystem, with a diverse range of sponges and hydrozoa. On these are a range of grazing nudibranchs.

A full list of species found at this site can be found on our surveys page:

Piel Channel marine life survey

Above right: Tree like sponge approx 30cm tall, photographed in the Piel Channel, possibly Rhapsailia hispida?

Thanks to Ron for organising the dive!

Almost perfect conditions for our latest visit to Roa Island to dive in the Piel Channel.  Underwater visibility was about two metres max. but the bright sunlight passing through the water made for a vibrant and very colourful dive.  Under these conditions the quantity and diversity of marine life which makes this location so special is plain to see.  The depth range of the dive was about three to six metres below low water neaps, the substrate mainly boulders and cobbles with muddy patches between.  Many species of seaweeds covered the boulders, blue mussels and periwinkles were everywhere.  Butterfish, shanny and corkwing wrasse were also spotted.  In just a small area of about half a square metre on the sponge bed four species of sponge, five species of crab, anemones, worms, nudibranchs, hydroids and common starfish were recorded. After recording common brittle stars on the lower shore on a shore walk a couple of weeks before it was hoped the we might find some on the dive, but unfortunately this was’nt to be.  We look forward to our next visit on saturday 11th. August.

Seven members of the group were joined by four members of Preston SAC on a long weekend trip based at Tralee bay about ten miles north of Oban.  Weather and conditions were good giving us the opportunity to explore the surrounding coast and hills and enabling us to dive a number of sites in Loch Creran including Creagan Inn Bay, the narrows between the inner and outer basins, a rocky reef on the south side of the inner basin and the serpulid worm reefs.  A long drift dive on the flood tide through the narrows was described as at the very least exhilarating.  Lewis spotted a cling fish on one dive but was unable to stop in the current to photograph it and Ron found a flame shell in the narrows just after using the last frame on the film.  The final dive of the weekend was from the old railway pier at Kentallon on Loch Linnhe. A swim of about 200 metres from the pier out into the loch brings you to a quite spectacular vertical wall with an abundance of marine life, a great dive to end a well organised weekend, thanks to Gordon.

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.

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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

This will be an informal event looking for and recording some of the creatures that can be found on the shore at Roa Island. Low tide is at 7:30pm and will be particularly low – at 0.5 metres it should expose more of the shore than most tides which means that many creatures that are often only seen by divers may be found. There are also some creatures that divers don’t normally see that are easier to find when the tide has gone out.

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Suitable for all ages; children must be supervised by a responsible adult. Meet at the top of the Jetty next to the Lifeboat Station @6:15pm – map reference SD 232648.

What to bring?

Must haves –

• Wellies, sandals or other shoes that you don’t mind getting wet and probably a little muddy;
• The same applies to your clothes; also bring some warmer clothes – the shore is exposed so can feel chillier than places on shore.

Optional extras –

• A towel and a change of clothes just in case may be a good idea;
• Shallow trays or a bucket to put creatures in to study (but be sure to put them back carefully exactly where you find them!);
• A net;
• A camera – but be aware that sea water and cameras do not mix well, if you bring a camera and have a waterproof housing then please use it and in any case take extreme care on the shore not to drop (or even put) your camera into water;
• A torch – preferrably a waterproof one, or another good option would be a head torch (sunset is @8:10pm, dusk 8:45pm).

Anything that you bring or wear will be at your own risk.

If anyone wants to car share please let me know and I will try to arrange to meet at the westbound layby on the A65 about half a mile east of junction 36 of the M6 – map ref SD 541821. But note that timing will be a little tight for some of us to get away from work and get to the meeting point in time and that I will NOT do this unless it is requested and I can arrange to leave in time to get to Roa Island.

Contact: Lewis Bambury

Tel: 01524 414318
Mob: 07798 707318

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Over the last few years we have built up a species list for the Hotel beach and wall at Lochaline. Most of the work has been done by Ron Crosby, with occasional contributions from other embers of the group. This year, however, we are glad to welcome contributions from Ron Ates and Godfried van Moorsel, both based in the Netherlands. Their additions (and corrections) take our list up to 122 named species – not bad at all for 100m stretch of coastline! Mind you the coastline is very conducive to diving, with easy access over a gently sloping beach, leading to a near vertical drop down to 80+m. This makes a wide range of habitats readily accessible to the diver – and reminds us about how much there is in the seas around our coasts.

Below is a quick breakdown table of the life recorded, for a full species list see our survey page:

Thanks to Gordon for organising an excellent dive weekend based at Tralee Bay (see map) near Oban last weekend (6th-9th May 2011). Eleven of us from the MCS and Preston Sub-Aqua Club enjoyed some spectacular dives.

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These including a fast run through the Creran Narrows, which Jo and I followed with a linked dive into an eddy pool by the North West shore, to get some better photos of the brittle star beds there, (it never ceases to amaze me how much colour there is in these beds, which appear from a distance to be rather unpleasant grey cob-webby places) before a rather hard swim back on the surface.

We also visited the wormery – where the serpulid reefs seem more substantial than ever – less substantial reefs are also to be found in the inner basin of Loch Creran.

Our final dive though was at Galanach, where I wanted to visit the sea-pen beds, with the intention of getting some better photos. As a rather nice bonus, however, I saw a large thorn-backed ray, which hung about long enough for me to get his mug-shot!

We also managed a small amount of microscopy, looking at a single plankton sample from Galanach. Unfortunately the phytoplankton have now disappeared (they formed a substantial component of the samples at Lochaline last month), though there is a large amount of zoo-plankton, with copepods and barnacle larvae (cyprids) as the major component.