Camas Torsa by Salen, Loch Sunart
Location of Camas Torsa in Google Maps
During a group trip to visit Mark and Ang Woombs at Loch Sunart in 2018 Barry and I were diving a site at Camas Torsa. It was late in the year and the visibility was really quite good, possibly 10m or more. As we were coming back towards the shore we got quite excited as we saw the outline of what appeared to be quite a substantial shipwreck looming out of the murk!
When we got closer we found that the shape of the ship was an optical illusion caused by a long line of rope strung horizontally, with a few more vertical ropes either up to buoys or hanging down in the water. We investigated for a little while and found the ropes were densely covered with life – mainly tunicates (sea squirts).
When we returned to Sunart this year, at the start of November, we decided to have better look at this habitat. After a little prodding from Mark we were keen to do some surveying this year and this site seemed to be a particularly interesting one to do.
We believe that it may have been part of a shellfish farm – there were no shellfish visible on the ropes that we looked at but nearby on the sea bed there were the discarded shells of some commercial species. I did notice that there was a buoy visible at the surface in the area of the ropes but most of the buoys supporting the ropes in mid water were below the surface, suggesting that eventually the ropes will fall to the seabed as the buoys degrade, the weight of life on the ropes grows, and any drag from tidal currents pulls them down.
Species list
Seaweeds
Saccharina latissima (Sugar kelp) (C)
Laminaria hyperborea (C)?
Pterothamnion plumula (Bushy feather weed) (C)
Filamentous red altenatively branched (Polysiphonia?) (C)
Chorda filum (O)
Bryozoans
Electra pilosa (C - on kelp)
Cnidarians
Protanthea simplex (R)
Sagartiogeton laceratus (R)
Alcyonium sp. (R)
Obelia sp. (C on kelp)
Halecium halecinum (C, often very dirty)
Worms
Sabella pavonina (O)
Lineus longissimus (R)
Epolumnia nebulosa (O)
Spirorbis spirorbis (C on kelp)
Pomatoceros sp. (P on stone embedded in kelp)
Crustacea
Necora puber (velvet swimming crab) (F)
Echinoderms
Antedon bifida (feather star) (F)
Ophiothrix fragilis (common brittle star) (F)
Psammechinus miliaris (shore urchin) (O)
Tunicates
Ciona intestinalis (A)
Ascidia mentula (O)
Diplosoma listerianum (F)
Corella parallelogramma (C)
Ascidia aspersa (C)
Fish
Gobiusculus flavescens (two-spotted gobie) (O)
No Sponges or Molluscs were observed
Lewis Bambury
November 2019