Harrogate SAC’ s annual trip to Plymouth has started to yield evidence of a regime change in the South West. Story by Cris Little
UKDIVING
Spotted ray at Fairyland Wall
PHOTO: MARK WALTERS
Seas they are a-changing
Harrogate SAC’ s annual trip to Plymouth has started to yield evidence of a regime change in the South West. Story by Cris Little
Our dive club, Harrogate BSAC, has for the last few years organized a weeklong trip to Plymouth, with In-Deep, based at Mountbatten. In part, the idea is to dive a different set of wrecks, but also to see marine animals that we do not usually find in our usual stamping-ground around the Farne Islands.
Speaking as someone based in the North, Plymouth’ s attactions include pink sea fans, crawfish, spider crabs, and fish such as spotted rays, rock cook, corkwing wrasse, bass and conger eels. As the 2025 diving season progressed, I was looking forward to getting into the( slightly) warmer waters of Plymouth and enjoying the variety of marine life of the South West. This was accentuated by reports in the media of large catches in Cornwall of the common octopus Octopus vulgaris and also photographs from In-Deep of the same species at various familiar Plymouth dive sites. The common octopus is easily distinguished from the curled octopus, Eledone cirrhosa, by being much larger and having two rows of suckers on the arms rather than one. It’ s a species I’ ve never seen in UK waters, so I was very hopeful of a sighting.
Our group of 11 divers arrived in Plymouth at the beginning of July after
Harrogate 2025 team
PHOTO: BEN KELLET
John Dory
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PHOTO: MARK WALTERS