| Archive for SUSAC forum Stirling University Sub-Aqua Club |
| prydain55 |
Weasel Loch, Eyemouth 14/4
Another dive to add to the log!!! Yesterday Charlie, Joe, Gus, and I made our way to the east coast for a rare dip in the North Sea. Apart from loads of fog, broken only by the odd ray of sunshine and the coast guard's foghorn, the conditions were decent. That's not to say that the access was all that easy: a long staircase down the side of a cliff followed by a scramble over rocks to the water. On both of our dives the tide was very high so the scramble wasn't that far, lucky us. 
The water itself was not bad, about 7 C and 3m vis. A quick swim out of the Loch and we were able to follow the current along the cliffs to the east at about 15m. The main feature: lots of small channels through boulders with more Dead Men's Fingers than you could ever wish to see. It's fun (though admittedly quite disturbing) to be propelled by fin and current between two vertical rock faces covered in lots of fuzzy pink things. We did see a few other critters, most of them larger than average, including a giant lobster, a very big sea slug (ID pending), a big grouper, and a very nice anemone, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Perhaps one of the other divers (especially the one who took the picture) could refresh my memory. As the spot is also popular with anglers, we found many and lots of fishing weights and even a (frozen) reel.
On the first dive we made a loop to a nice little grotto and exited where we entered at Weasel Bay. Joe was a bit on the cold side so he stayed back as shore cover while Charlie, Gus, and I continued past where we turned around on the first dive and made our way around the point to the bay on the other side. Our route was via a small channel 1-2 m deep at high tide near Diver's Hole. The swells there are strong enough to propel a diver like a bullet to the other side and Leeds Bay. What a ride! Getting out at Leeds Bay was not terribly difficult though the scramble up a barely improved slope to the top of the cliffs in full kit was not a walk in the park. It was definitely worth it though! Charlie has posted a map and pictures of the dive site from last summer here: http://www.congeralley.com/sites/weasel.htm More pictures are to be found here: http://s161.photobucket.com/album...current=StepsDowntoWeaselLoch.jpg Now lets see some of the ones Charlie took! (hint, hint) Max |
| charlie |
Excellent blog & photies, Maxster!
A most enjoyable day's diving. Was quite surprised how strong the current was along the cliff. My leg muscles were really tight today! I enjoyed playing with the pipe fish on the first dive & admiring the wealth of dead men's fingers all over the rocks. Also an abundance of spiny squat lobsters + that monster of a true lobster. The crabs were also impressive with some nice edibles (not big enough for the pot though - not that we would take from a Marine Nature Reserve anyway) and some of the biggest velvet swimming crabs that I can remember seeing. The viz wasn't as good as last time but was still good enough for it to be lots of fun. As a result, I didn't take many photos. In fact I only took a few of the massive enigmatic nudibranch. Here are the best ones (they're still not very good I'm afraid). 
I thought originally that it was a sea lemon, but agree in hindsight with Gus that it probably wasn't. I looked through my book & wonder if it could be Tritonia hombergi. According to my book, it's the biggest of our nudibranchs (up to 200mm) and has bushy gills all around the sides of its body which ours seemed to have. Also it apparently feeds on Alcyonium digitatum which as we all know are dead men's fingers which seems to fit in with the facts. There's info on this beast here. Our 2nd dive was also great fun with purple henry starfish & beautiful dahlia anemones in particular catching my eyes. I should have taken some photos of the anemones but I didn't want to waste time at that part of the dive as we were ascending so we had to watch the air levels. Was good to get to Divers' Hole & to pass through the channel to Leeds Bay: at least we know that it can be done now! 
I can't wait to get back to the North Sea now: it has lots of rocks (literally)! 
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| gus |
yip good dives,
i agree on that nudi ident. my book has fairly blue colourings for it so that made me doubt it. also by the time i'm comparing them in the book the image in my mind blurs, the photo is without doubt a very handy tool in this game. i also noted a smaller anemones which i am fairly confident were Sagartia elegans, white tentacles with white disk variety which was cool. cheers |
| joe |
yeah the first dive was great, shame i got so cold, i hope this bruising goes down on by neck 
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| charlie |
I found another page showing Scottish photos of Tritonia hombergi
web page link This one in particular looks similar to ours from Saturday: 
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| Sam |
We saw one of those guys in Loch Creran, they're cool!
Sam |
| prydain55 |
Yep, I'd say that's pretty close to a positive identification. Kudos.
Max |
| joe |
It defo that one. Very nice |