Random Jottings
Low oxygen levels, now that is a real issue
I was looking at some news sites and found details of this report from the Smithsonian institute, which at face value is a bit worrying.....
So I dropped them a line to get more details.
Breitburg-et-al-eaam7240.full.pdf
The report does make some interesting reading with the main causes being detailed as global warming, which despite misgiving is being accelerated by humans and the influx of fertilizers from farming, again more pressure is being put on arable land to support and increasing population so QED there too.
I was particularly interested about the area around the UK, I know that the Pacific is the elephant in the room but hey I am concerned about my own doorstep first and foremost.
The areas of risk aren't in great detail but on the East Coast of the UK I would guess that the problem areas are around river estuaries where farming run off would cause issues, so Thames, Humber, Tees, Tyne etc. I must say that on my patch we do have some areas which due to the particular geography are 'dead', there is one particular site at Beadnell where there is a dead stretch where you can almost taste the sulphides through your reg!
There is one thing that I do know and that is that we are seeing minisule amounts of acidification of the sea around the UK, the reason for my rather bald statement is that over the last 'cough cough' years I have experienced a 'softening' of scallop shells, strange but true!
Years ago you could 'crack' open the scallop by twisting a screw-driver in the gap in the shell through which water is pushed, over time we have now got to a point where the shell crumbles and it can be a bit of a chew to clean the mollusc.
Unfortunately due to the scale of the problem it simply isn't going to be sortd in my life time, stopping chemical rich run-off will take years to resolve and as for global warming, well that's a whole different issue! The world is exiting a 'mini ice-age' and that is well established, the problem is that we are travelling too fast and will probably overshoot where the Global mean should be... whatever that means bearing in mind we had hippos in the Thames in pre-history!
I do have some questions re the report, an example being that the report details an estimated 77 billion tons of oxygen 'released' by the sea that's quite a mass.......
Dive safe
RichW
Latest Photographs


More girders and struts, this is a good distance from the main lumps of superstructure but the shallow water and big seas does increasingly move stuff about
A view on the flange end, it's all rusting nicely which is down to the bad conditions 'ripping away' the weed......the metal rusts, weeds recolonise, weeds are ripped off and around we go until there is no metal left!
A dead Velvet Swimming Crab (Necora puber) being eaten by Hermit Crabs (Pagurus bernhardus) and Common Starfish (Asterias rubens) everything is used, nothing goes to waste in the seas!
A common or garden Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), get to the gritty sand and you will se a few of these tasty fish, if you are so inclined you could bag for your tea.
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?
More wreckage but a long way from SS Mistley, from its general condition and rivet pitch I would guess that it is from Yewglen and was lost during the local recovery/salvage operation!
This is a nice shot of one of the compressed air cylinders, you can see that a large section has been eroded away by the effect of sea and sand, potentially aided if someone blasted off the bronze fittings.
The same guys swimming through a line of structure, torches just 'pin-pricks' in the gloom!
The rocks, which are a soft 'holey' shale are coated in a pretty pink coralline growth
Countless divers have seen this piece of copper pipe and tried to move it....one day I shall return with a hacksaw!!
A small Common Hermit Crab (Pagurus bernhardus) in a discarded winkle shell, the bottom of the site is crawling with these critters, searching for food, squabbling with their brethern over shells and generally going about their daily business!
And in colour, not as much 'Scream' like but you get the idea!
A bit of a swim through, if that's your thing, I'm not sure if this is part of the funnel or a 'rippled' section of hull/deck. I suspect it is part of the funnel as there are no signs of beams.
Head 'straight down' from the propellor and you will land on two large boilers, just follow the debris!
A young and undecorated Decorator Crab, or technically a Long Legged Spider Crab (Macropodia rostrata) loads of em on SS Glanmire on weekend on 1st April.
Port side again
It's here in the more stable bottom where when you look you can see......
More scrap.....I love it!!
A Painted Goby (Pomatoschistus pictus) a very common small fish that follows divers around hoping that some small creatures, its next meal, are dislodged.
Looking at the breech assembly of a deck gun.
A Green shore crab (Carcinus maenas) this one was busy digging a hole, there must have been something down there.
A shot showing four rods coming out from the sand clos to the propellor tip, so probably part of the engine mounting arrangement.
All placed together and nearly done!