Pippa Hardisty recommends the dark delights of Loch Sunart in the western Highlands
Pippa Hardisty Sponge-bearing hermit crab
Night dive by day
Pippa Hardisty recommends the dark delights of Loch Sunart in the western Highlands
Briefing: Here is an enthralling dive North of Mull for those who enjoy the weird, wonderful and slightly creepy! Laudale Pier on the south bank of Loch Sunart – a 19 mile long tidal sealoch on the West coast of Scotland, has abundant life. The lochbed is teeming with creatures shifting and writhing in a mass of activity.
The dive: Parking on the old pier, we walked our kit along a rough path, being careful not to slip on rocky boulders and seaweed. We kitted-up at the shore edge. Our plan was to swim out away from the shore, to a depth of approximately 16m, returning along the same trajectory.
On descent there is a halocline created by the run-off of fresh water steeped in peat from the hillside, forming a dark brown layer flowing over the main body of saltwater.
Once below this murky boundary, light decreases. This offers divers an opportunity to complete a night dive in the daytime, in crystal clear visibility.
Life on the lochbed resembled a scene from a horror movie. Everything was moving, swimming, creeping across the sealoch floor. Novices among us kept a keen eye on buoyancy for fear of colliding with the moving mass of organisms. A brittlestar bed of all colours and stripes intermingled with large starfish and sea urchins, all overlapping and moving over one another.
The green sea urchins held protective empty shells attached to their purple spines. Disheveled hermit crabs wore tatty second hand shells with broken and battered holes, one had even opted for a sponge for protection and camouflage instead! The cloak anemone crab became a favourite of mine, with its delicate purple spots and stinging cells that attack anything disturbing its peace.
Slippery butterfish rolled past, adept at avoiding predators. Squat lobsters popped their inquisitive heads out of hiding holes; one of them hid behind a discarded wine bottle! It was only the sign of human impact on this environment, other than the three visible divers and their torches.
Rare and beautiful flame shell clams live underneath the mass of brittlestars, protected by a layer or stones and shells. As we returned to the shore, slowly making our ascent along the rising loch floor and ever increasing kelp, I spotted a chiton. These little mollusks date back to over 400million years ago, and always fill me with wonder at their evolution, with their patterned mobile armoured plate protection!
Debrief: This is an unusual and characterful site, of high biodiversity, accessible from the shore, and suitable for novice divers. It offers a real glimpse in to the activities of flourishing sealoch life, so much so that the underwater photographer’ s most challenging decision is which subject to focus on first.
A well camouflaged squat lobster
Sea urchin among the brittlestars
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