Guides
A brief overview of UK boat diving
This presentation was pulled together to give a brief overview of UK boat diving, everything isn't always as easy as PADI try to present so a colleague and myself decided to let people know what to expect before diving in the UK.
Latest Photographs


A pair of Long Clawed Squat Lobster (Munida rugosa) scrapping, not the best of shots because they fled after the first photograph.
Typical geology, the surfaces are covered in Dead mans fingers (Alcyonium digitatum), the bottom being small vertical faces, rocks and large boulders....all very scenic and pretty in good vis!
The machining was easy but the brass bits got everywhere, next time I will set up some sort of capture system
Having extracted this common lobster (Hommarus gammarus) I found it was berried, grrrrh!
A lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) moving past with the prevailing tide, the long stingers on these beggars can be 3m long and be left on shot ropes sooooo, dont approach them without caustion and wear gloves!
The joys of a 'professional-hobbyist' (?) lathe is that you can carry out tweaks, in this case off-setting the blank so that I didn't need to set the lathe up to taper turn, rather the work-piece was off-set.
The divers favourite a Tompot Blenny (Parablennius gattorugine) this one was busy 'ripping' bits of food from a childs drop-net that you can just see in the background, so more than happy to pose for pictures as there was food about!
An arty shot of a Spider Crab (Maja brachydactylus), can you spot the eye?
Round sections......it looks very similar to the cross-member on the old admiralty pattern anchor that I lifted from SoP in 2015 but not sure
Another small nudibranch, not sure what type it is and for all the wporld it appears to be an immature Sea Lemon although it is far to late in the season.....further investigation required!
A grey seal pup (Halichoerus grypus) on a rock almost saying come closer........
A grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) the reason loads of divers visit the islands
Lumpsucker eggs, not normally as common as the washed up fish and once used as fake caviar
A Common Starfish (Asterias rubens) this one was digging deep for I guess a cockle or similar that he had 'sensed'.
This dive I headed to the stern and this is the port side rudder
Dead Mans Fingers (Alcyonium digitatum)
A small shellfish, probably some type of oyster. I took this photograph as I have never seen one before and thought it may be a 'foreign invader', it isn't!
Haraaaaaaaaaald! More scrap.
Typical farne site, a 'wall' down to a slowly sloping rock and boulder bottom.
Lucy from 'Natural England' she was doing a recce and spent most of the dives picking up samples of weed.
Why do it? Well as they are brass and mahogany they can be left on the boat and will not corrode despite the saline atmosphere.