UKDIVING
Sunset over the Summer Isles
Seeing is believing
I have been a fan of elasmobranchs ( sharks , rays and skates ) since I was very young and watched David Attenborough waxing lyrical about them . I am lucky enough to work in an aquarium where I can see rays and catsharks daily , but , until recently , I had never been lucky enough to see a flapper skate . Near the end of September 2019 , I spent a day Seasearching in the Summer Isles , Loch Broom . The aim that day was to re-survey an area between two of the islands , known to be a healthy bed of maerl – a priority marine feature and keystone species . The aim was to find a previously marked-out area and take photographs along a transect ( a specific line across the seabed ), using a quadrat ( a set-sized plastic square ). Then we could compare the pictures to the same images taken previously to give an accurate picture of the continuing state of health of the seabed .
I had completed my part of this task , the photography , and was waiting for my buddy to take some video of the area ( to later be turned into a 3D model using photogrammetry ) so I drifted away inspecting the seabed . After photographing a rather calm and photogenic harbour swimming crab , I glanced up and to my amazement and shock , saw a two-and-ahalf-metre-long female flapper skate resting on the seabed approximately 10m from me , in a mere eight metres of water .
An adult female flapper skate at 8m
tagging programme run by NatureScot in 2016-17 found that skate stay in the same area for extended periods – females more so than males – and they spend the majority of the summer months in relatively deep water from 100m to 150m . My friend and colleague Dr Lauren Smith and I have started a ‘ Shark and Skate Citizen Science Scotland ’ Facebook page
( https :// www . facebook . com / groups / sharkandskatecitizensciencescotland ), where members can post pictures , ask questions about any Scottish elasmobranch , and report sightings for input into my database of flapper skate and their purse locations across Scotland . Seasearch divers visit the same spot annually to monitor changes
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