Each month we feature a selection of your letters
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Tale of the Triton’ s trumpet
IN JANUARY I WAS ON A DIVE IN Jamaica exploring an area where Branch 51 had built a fairly large tyre reef, which attracted lots of fish. Over the years, the rather barren, sloping mud and rock bottom has experienced several hurricanes and earthquakes, and only a fraction of the tyre modules remain, attracting a vibrant fish life, including the invasive lionfish.
On this dive at 27m, I spotted a large Atlantic Triton’ s trumpet mollusc, Charonia variegata, a now rare species in the area. On a follow-up dive, I spotted a six-cylinder engine block lying on its side. It had no pistons, crankshaft, or oil sump, so looking in from the bottom side, I immediately saw what I believe was the same Triton’ s trumpet, now firmly attached, busy laying rows of egg sacs inside one cylinder.
In my 45 years of frequent diving, I had never seen this process, and when I later searched on Google, I established that the egg-laying process takes over a month. I visited the site twice a week and observed the rows of egg sacks increasing weekly.
In early February, I found a fishing net covering the engine block and decided I had to come back and try to remove it. During this follow-up dive, I found out that the fishermen had recovered the net but in the process turned the engine block 90 degrees, trapping the Triton’ s trumpet under it. I could still see the egg sacs and the shell from above the engine block.
Now I had to get help from a fisherman friend to turn the block over to its original position. Unfortunately, the fisherman pulled too hard, moving the engine block deeper, so I cut the line before the block got too deep. The silt stirred up brought the visibility to zero, so I had to discontinue my dive. To my dismay, the Triton’ s trumpet shell had been broken when the engine block was turned over by the recovery of the fishing net. A story with a sad ending. THORE DAHL, A083331
Penrhyn Llyn �
I’ M ORIGINALLY FROM NORTH WALES and have been a BSAC member continuously since 1984, having learned to dive in East Anglia. I’ ve just been reading the May 2025 edition of SCUBA and noticed that on page 12 the spelling of the peninsula is slightly incorrect.
The English spelling of it should be‘ Lleyn’ which gives it the same sound as the Welsh spelling. If using the Welsh spelling there should be a top hat character above the letter‘ y’, as in‘ Llŷn Peninsula’. Llyn means‘ lake’ and is unrelated to this area. Also, please note the capital N for North Wales, as you may already be aware of. Diolch yn fawr!
JOHN NORTHALL, Cambridgeshire
The leftovers
I TOOK A PARTY FROM BUXTON SAC TO THE FARNE Islands this Whitsun bank holiday weekend. During our first dive, some of us came across the aftermath of a recent visit to the islands by a pod of orcas a couple of weeks before, as reported by( local charter operator) Billy Shiels. The orcas had not been seen since that visit on 2 May, which made me comfortable to take the dive. If the Orcas had been seen on the day before I would have not dived. NICK BAILEY, Buxton SAC
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