Secret Seas team head to Scotland

Last night saw the second of the BBC’s spectacular new four-part series, Britain’s Secret Seas, which looks at the amazing marine life around our coast.

Presenter and dive explorer Paul Rose met the Royal Navy divers who train to diffuse bombs in the cold and turbulent waters around Garvey Island off the coast of Scotland.

Disposing bombs underwater has a different set of risks to those on land, and the Navy have to comb through vast expanses of thick sea kelp to locate them, wearing special rebreathers as some bombs are accoustically activated.

Biologist Tooni Mahto headed to the Firth of Forth off the coast of Inverness where dolphins are regularly spotted tracking salmon, and discovered that this breed of dolphin could identify each other through individual names and whistles.

Paul and Tooni visited St Annes Marine Reserve around Scotland’s northern tip, to prove that British marine life is not only more colourful than most people imagine, but could even help in the fight against cancer.

Journalist Frank Pope investigated the problem of by-catch in the North Sea, where each year fisherman net around 900,000 tonnes of by-catch.

And Paul joined Frank to dive the Sound of Mull, off the West Coast of Scotland, to explore some spectacular sunken shipwrecks, including the Dutch cargo ship ‘Breda’, and report on the joys (and dangers) of wreck diving as well as clever new wreck survey technology. 

Watch Episode One here on BBC iPlayer, to check out the team’s encounter with the majestic basking shark – Britain’s largest fish – and giant spiney spidercrabs; no doubt a familiar sight to those of us who dive Porth Ysgaden regularly!

Also, read Paul Rose’s blog on the BBC website to find out why he wanted to share Britain’s Secret Seas with us.

BBC explores UK diving in new series

Exciting news from BSAC! A new BBC series on UK diving, Britain’s Secret Seas, is set to be aired soon on prime time BBC2.

Due for transmission on Sunday 8th May at 8pm on BBC2, the series has taken the ‘Top Gear’ slot and is expected to have a high audience.

The stunning four-part series travels around the UK coastline from north to west, focusing on the diverse marine world we have around our own coastline.

Over four weeks presenter and BSAC diver Paul Rose, marine biologist Tooni Mahto and archaeologist Frank Pope reveal that the seas around Britain are as every bit as colourful and extraordinary as the oceans around the world.

From seals, dolphins and basking sharks to reefs, wrecks, fascinating history and curious night-time predators – our small island is home to a vast array of underwater treasures just waiting to be discovered, as well as many locations already familiar to a lot of BSAC divers.

The series is a really exciting opportunity to encourage more people to dive Britain with BSAC, and BSAC HQ are expecting the series to inspire viewers to take up scuba diving so are asking clubs to be prepared!

Lara will be promoting the series on Facebook and Twitter to try and make as many people aware of the series as possible, and as club members, BSAC are asking us all to spread the word and get friends, family and anyone else watching the new show.

You can preview clips from the forthcoming series here!

A year in diving by Mark and Debbie

This week we’ve got a lovely piece by Mark and Debbie Hammond on the highlights of their 2010 diving.

Well, what a year 2010 was! Debbie and I enjoyed a wonderful year’s diving, starting with a trip to Hurghada, Egypt, in February to blow away the winter blues.

It was well organized by Troy and Richard, and we stayed at the Sinbad Resort where we were treated to wall-to-wall sunshine and incredible diving with Emperor Divers, including some beautiful reefs and the wrecks of the SS Carnatic and the Giannis D.

On returning home and reflecting on the welcome break away from a cold and snowy England, we started to look forward to the Spring and the joys of UK diving – and we were not disappointed!

Our first port of call was Holyhead Harbour – not quite the Red Sea but hey ho! The weather behaved and we all had a good time comparing our bountiful catch of scallops!

Spring was quickly upon us and as a Club we enjoyed some memorable times diving from the club rib boat at Porth Ysgaden on Wales’s beautiful Llyn Peninsular.

There were plenty of training trips up to good old Capernwray and even more memorable moments (remember that line in the famous Michael Caine film: “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”) and when June came, we were off to Pembroke.

This was a fantastic trip organised by Tim and Alison, diving with West Wales Divers. Again the weather stayed good for the most part, water visibility was good, Bruce dropped some of us off at the blow hole (wow!) and no Michael, we don’t have to climb out, we swim back (wink wink).

Later that month we were off to Egypt with Paul and Jane to meet up with the MV Gelen for a liveaboard safari heading south to the Brothers and Elphinstone reefs - what a treat we were in for! Hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, reef sharks, dolphins and the elusive dugong, and as always the company was excellent, the food was great the crew looked after are every need.

The summer was good to us weather-wise and we managed to enjoy a very pleasant few months more diving around the Llyn Peninsular, despite much discussion on high tide, low tide and who had the biggest dive computer.

In October I was off to Scapa Flow on Lindsay’s trip, a twelve hour drive there and a ten hour drive back! Again we were in luck with some fantastic weather and some jolly good company, and we dived the German scuttled fleet off a charter boat called the Radiant Queen.

November approached and we had a trip booked for a return to Egypt on the Gelen, but this time it was north to the wrecks and Ras Mohammed.

The weather could not have been better – 34C, the sea was like a mill pond! Our dive on the Thislegorm was very memorable, the Kingston wreck/reef was fantastic, and all in all it was a great year!

Thank you one and all, can’t wait for this year’s trips and outings!

By Mark and Debbie

Stunning wrecks at Scapa Flow

Mark Hammond reports on last week’s Club dive trip to Scapa Flow, where a group of eleven lucky divers experienced a fantastic week of underwater activity – over to you, Mark!

We left Shrewsbury last Friday on a rented mini bus (driven by Roger and Keith – many thanks) headed for the Scottish border.

Some twelve hours and many stops later, we arrived at The Ferry Inn in Scrabster and settled in for the evening to await to the morning ferry to the Orkneys.

In the morning, we set off to sea and we passed the the Old Man of Hoy, an incredible natural sea stack of red sandstone.

 

We were then greeted at the picturesque Stromness harbour by Emily Turton, the Captain of the Radiant Queen. Emily’s a very knowledgable and safety-conscious captain who baked us cakes and made us tea! She was fantastic and it was a joy to be on her boat.

 

After loading our kit on the boat, we settled into our accommodation (all desperately hoping to avoid the snorers – you know who you are!).

 

During the course of the week, we dived the  SMS Coln with 15 foot long guns all intact; the SMS Dresden which is known as one of the best warship dives in the flow; the Kronprinz Wilhelm which is massive; the Markgraf which at a total depth of around 43 metres is the deepest of the German wrecks; and many others.

 

On some of the dives we were joined by birds diving for fish at twenty meters which wasn’t quite what we expected to see but amazing nonetheless!

 

The weather remained very good as did the company. Paul tried his new wetsuit on and on the last night we all tried out most of the local ales before our journey home the next day.

 

A good time was had by all and I would love to go back again. Once again, many thanks to Lindsay, Roger and Keith for organising it.

 

Thanks also to Derek for the great pics – click on the link below to see them.