Lisa Shafe reports on the ongoing efforts of Operation Oyster , joining a team survey of key sites in Lochs Craignish and Melfort , western Scotland
UKDIVING
Tanya does her seagrass count
Oyster perpetual
Lisa Shafe reports on the ongoing efforts of Operation Oyster , joining a team survey of key sites in Lochs Craignish and Melfort , western Scotland
You will have seen various articles in SCUBA referring to Operation Oyster , an ongoing conservation exercise run by BSAC ’ s expeditions advisor , Andy Hunt . It had started with an expedition in September of 2022 , but this feature tells the story of the project ’ s next stage , piloting the underwater survey techniques and the new Underwater Surveyor course .
I rocked up at Dunstaffnage marina , near Oban , on a surprisingly warm day for the end of March – 16 ° C in glorious sunshine . Then I began the tortuous walk around all the pontoons to get the kit on to MV Clasina , our home for the next week for ‘ Operation Oyster ’. I was about to join the BSAC expedition out to the Lochs around Jura in the search for native oysters . I only knew the organiser , Andy Hunt , and the boat crew , but as with most expeditions , I would soon get to know the rest of the divers .
DAY 1 . We set off bright and early the next day for a shakedown dive on the wreck of Breda , a perennial favourite just outside Oban . There , we had a lovely 5-10m viz , it was covered in life , I was diving with Ian Hicks , and soon realised I probably wouldn ’ t need a torch this week as he lit up the entire seabed with 20,000 piercing lumens of video camera light …. little did I know that later in the week even those lights could disappear on one poor viz dive we did !
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