Duo Divers - Farne Islands

Fun and games for us and the White Beaked dolphins, Lagernorhynchus albirastris!

A Painted Spiny Lobster (panulirus versicolor)

So it was constructed from baulks of oak and glued and pinned together, I would have liked some brass staples but the wood was mineralised so not practical really

A Yellow Spot Flatworm (thysanozoon nigropapillosum)

A nudibranch (glossodoris cincta), a very common species that has had several variations.....this may be one of them!

There's a small Wolf-fish (Anarhichas lupus) in there somewhere!

The velvet swimming crab (necora puber), there are always some about and 'prod' one and it will swim away.....honest!

A Spiny Waspfish (ablabys macracanthus)

A Soft Coral (Dendronephthya spp.) there are healthy colonies of soft corals on many of the wrecks.

Green Turtle (chelonia midas)

The ships were built for speed, with plates rivetted together, the rivets will have been made from a softer material with less cobalt/manganese so have rotted away leaving rows of holes and allowing the paltes to start slipping.

A small hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus) in a top-knot shell.

In this case the camouflage of the Pogge (Agonus cataphractus) wasn't good enough and this live fish was caught by a Velvet swimming Crab (Necora puber)

A Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), relatively common around Beadnell due to the mixed ground.

The closest I can identify is in the family Dendronotidae Dendronotus frondosus which is 'very variable' so that's probably it!

The line does get a little busy despite no current and excellent vis!

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.

White-tip reef shark (triaenodon obesus) at Seymour Norte

A Green Turtle (chelonia midas) swimming up for a breath of air

Galapagos Shark (carcharhinus galapagensis)

An atmospheric shot inside Kensho Maru

Deep inside Fujikawa Maru you will find one of the iconic images, it is a compressor known as R2D2 due to its striking similarity to the Star Wars robot of the same name.

A Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata)

As you get closer to the cliff then there is more sandstone bedrock and the doleritic limestone boulders get smaller.....there are also more edible sea-urchins, not that you would!

Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are masters of moving when you press the button!!!

Donzo on SS Breda (again!)

Inside Chrisolua K, swimming over a cargo of tiles bound for Sharm, a very atmospheric swim through with a workshop on the right if you want to go a bit deeper.

Again on SS Thesis, John Pritchard.

A male Cuckoo Wrasse (Labrus bimaculatus), this one was very interested in what I was about.

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

A Black Spotted Puffer (arothron nigropunctatus)

Grey Seal (halichoerus grypus), play or run away?

A Nudibranch coryphella lineata

Once you get down to ~25m the bottom is covered with mats of Common Brittlestars (Opthiothrix fragilis) and possibly other species, but unless starfish really float your boat would you bother spending time to identify them?

A general 'look' at the topography, in this case shallow troughs and loads of kelp

A 'warty' Nudibranch (phyllidia varicosa)

Inside one of the small wrecks, all that I can remember was that there was a raging current and once you ventured out of the lee of the wreck we were on a major drift dive!

Duo-Divers

When one isn't enough

Farne Islands - North Hares

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