Duo-Divers

These Spiny Starfish (Marthasterias glacialis) are very common and again in common with most starfish a good subject for macro work as you can get close and take very good textural and close up shots.

Not sure what this is......a mechanism with a brass ring on one side......could be some sort of mounting and rotational device for a searchlight?

I was trying to show how much sand had been scoured out of the iste, you can see here that there is a section of shale wall that's maybe fifty centimeters high where there was no weed hence it was covered prior to the last storms.

Plates and spars towards the stern of the wreck, this time with a diver in the background

An arty fary half and half shot

Looking towards Dell Point, not sure that you can clearly see the tosheroon in the watery winter sunshine

A common Hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus), this one seemed to have a load of eggs around the outer edge of the shell

The divers favourite a Tompot Blenny (Parablennius gattorugine) it's probably the 'mad hair-cut' that makes them popular.

F - Getting it joined wasn't too difficult

In the centre of the top deck as you swim back towards the funnels there are only the occasional uprights left, not sure how long before everything starts buckling.

That 'light-bulb' moment, this is the slightly bent bit that made me think 'keel' it doesn't move and has that 'look' about it. I will need to clout and see if it is solid or a 'U' section with wood inside.

A Painted Goby (Pomatoschistus pictus) a very common small fish that follows divers around hoping that some small creatures, its next meal, are dislodged.

When you get to the sandstone bedrock there are quite a few areas where there are 'small' gullies with undercut sections, surprisingly there are very few lobsters in the cut-backs but a few under boulders!

Common edible and tasty lobster (homarus gammarus) the area is home to a multitude of them!

Kelp (Family laminariales) does tend to be quite a long lived plant with the stem above say the first twenty centimeters quite a safe place for a plant to grow without the risk of sea-urchins 'browsing' you away. In this case a sponge encases the stem, making an eco-system up in the water column!

Part of a shoal of lesser sandeels (Ammodytes tobianus) there are huge bait balls of this foodstuff through the summer, some of which are attacked from above and below. These fish were quite happy to stay relatively close, they obviously didn't see a diver as a threat.

Wreckage from SS Loch Leven which foundered without the loss of life, not an oft dived site but very nice scenery plus rust!

A Short Spined Sea-Scorpion (Myoxocephalus scorpius), a nice 'easy' fish to get nice photographs of, as you can probably tell if you go through all of the albums.

All of the time keep an eye open for Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) they sting and the tentacles are a few meters long, always approach from up-tide! 

Toby and Lucy starting to surface, it was 'odd' to do a three minute safety stop.......

The deeper gullies have a thick layer of grit and sand on the bottom, possibly concealing 'goodies'