Duo-Divers

Another of my regular buddies, Donzo coming out at the bottom, to be greeted with a flash!

A Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), there are loads about this year (2016) you just have to get your eye in to spot 'em.

You will find this particular sponge all over 'shallow' sites around the Northumbrian coast, not being an expert I can only guess that it is Stelletta lactea and if someone wishes to correct me then great!

Hanging doing deco

Believe it or not a Gravel Sea Cucumber (Neopentadadactyla mixta) under the tentacles there is a creature living in a hole!

A Long Legged Spider Crab (Macropodia rostrata) there are loads on all or most sites but this particular specimen had decided to camouflage himself with a whitish sponge.....not the best of moves!

Towards the end of summer the kelp does get eaten away, once the critters or urchins have broken through the tough outer skin they rapidly get stuck into the softer internal flesh

Spot the seal!

In the actual 'submarine hole' it is an absolute mishmash of bits concreted onto the bottom, in this case a heavy gauge cable has been concreted onton steel and rock

The softer compound rivets are also rotting away on this wreck

The upper mounting position where the pin would fit with a wrist mounted compass to give some sort of scale

Girders and bits and bats that have flattened onto the bed-rock in the main gully

A 'bow shot', I try to get one of these on every wreck

The Staple Sound side of the site is a wall smothered in Dead mans Fingers (Alcyonium digitatum) and is a great scenic dive!

A Long Clawed Squat Lobster (Munida rugosa) this one had set up shop in an old broken bottle which I guess forms a good and secure home.

The common edible crab (cancer pagarus) you tend to get only smaller ones in shallow water but there are still plenty of them about.

A pretty little light, one of the guys thought 'deck light' but with a solid back and close to another two broken lights I would think a bulkhead light of some description, date late victorian to pre WWI.

This is a shot from the back showing that there is no path for the sunlight above the deck, it is blanked off

In common with most southern sites there were loads of Snale locks anemones (Anemonia viridis) on surfaces where there was sun and water movement.

A Long Clawed Squat Lobster (Munida rugosa) this one had set up shop in an old broken bottle which I guess forms a good and secure home.

More s'cenic stuff 'showing the hull rent where the engine room has been blasted open.

Football sea squirts (Diazona violacea), again lots of these very simple animals inhabit the outside of the hull of SS Rondo.