UK DIVING g downloaded my pictures , I realised that that the anemones themselves were full of tiny critters , so not only did I want to go back with wide angle but super – macro too .
We spent that afternoon exploring the island of Hirta – being dive bombed by skuas whenever we stumbled too close to their nests . Looking down at the seabirds from the top of the highest sea cliffs in the UK was a pretty dizzying experience . The views are absolutely stupendous .
The dangerous seas surrounding the islands have always prevented a fishing culture from taking hold on St Kilda ; the population depended largely on seabirds , which formed a major part of the St
Kildan diet and provided goods to trade . During the spring and summer months , the men clambered barefoot down the steep cliff faces on ropes , to harvest young gannets , auks and fulmars ; while the women took puffins from their burrows on the nearby island of Dun .
At one time it was estimated that each person on St Kilda ate 115 fulmars every year . In 1876 , it was said that the islanders took 89,600 puffins for food and feathers . There are not many mammals on St Kilda but you do have the company of the wild Soay sheep and the St Kilda field mouse . The St Kilda house mouse died out when the islands were evacuated in the 1930s . g
W Above : Diver in the cave on Stac Lee
U Below : Sagartia Anemone ( Sagartia
elegans )
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