Sandra Stalker relives her first time on one of the South Coast’ s signature shore dives
UKDIVING COMPETITION
Cuttlefish close-up Tompot’ s pipe dream
Pier review
Sandra Stalker relives her first time on one of the South Coast’ s signature shore dives
Briefing: Swanage pier in Dorset, originally a Victorian pier built to accommodate paddle steamers, is an unchallenging but diverse shore dive site with a maximum depth of 5m, stretching out into Swanage bay.
The dive:“ Wow, wow, wow it’ s like being in aquarium” was my log book entry the first time I dived Swanage pier back in 2001. I will admit I’ m easily excitable, however I still remember that dive clearly 24 years on. It was a sunny summer’ s day and the site my buddy and I had planned to dive was blown out, so we thought we’ d try the pier, never having dived it before.
As we entered under the pier structure, theatrical rays of light beaming through
the slats above created spectacular dappled lighting. We swam past pier legs like jewels encrusted in colourful red and yellow sponges and sea squirts shimmering in the sunrays. Cheeky tompot blennies popped their heads out of holes to observe us as we went by, while bright orange blackface blennies danced around.
Nearing the middle section it opened up like a cathedral, the light flooding in. It was there that I stopped in my tracks, floating motionlessly watching shoals of thousands of smelt framed by the pier legs as if in a giant aquarium, weaving and darting through and around the structure. The sunlight shimmering off them in visibility of around 10m, while in the distance on the fringes of the structure larger predators such as bass were herding them in and out of the legs.
Moving on through this shower of silver glitter, we reached the dark section at the very end, the legs spotted with white dead men’ s fingers, displaying delicate polyps and tiny vivid magenta Edmundsella pedata nudibranchs( they were Flabelina in those days, flouncy little things always changing their names). Here we also came across huge conger eels peeping out of pipes, lobsters in crevices tentatively making a grab for us, clumps of twin fan worms wafting gracefully then retracting as we tried to get a closer look, and a bench completely upright on the seabed.
The return journey treated us to the same spectacles and more, as we slowly made our way back through this magical underwater world, the dive lasting longer than an hour and a half, the beauty of the shallows as we took in the theatre of Swanage Pier.
Debrief: A location with no currents, easy to navigate, easy access and an abundance of life both large and tiny makes it the perfect dive site for divers of any ability.
Smiling Sandra
48 A sea of smelt