SCUBA March 2024 issue 143 | Page 40

Expedition team
From Seawilding
From Halton Charters
UKDIVING
Louise ’ s dive brief

Expedition team

■ Andrew Hunt , Wight Dolphins
■ Peter Allison , Reading
■ Elizabeth Allison , Reading
■ Ian Hicks , Gibraltar
■ Tiago Moriera , Tyneside 114
■ Louise De Lisle , NSAC1853
■ Lisa Shafe , Tyneside 114
■ Denise Major , Ilfracombe and North Devon
■ Peter Scott , Eastleigh 0476
■ Karen Brown , Eastleigh 0476
■ Tanya Tredwell-Coleman , Hull BSAC 14
■ Maggie Russell , Chester SAC

From Seawilding

■ Katherine Knight
■ Eric Holden

From Halton Charters

■ Bob Anderson – Skipper
■ Neil Cope – Deck Hand
■ Tash Yates – Cook than 4m of water , so excellent buoyancy control was definitely the order of the day ; the seabed was a mix of fine sand and shale , all too easily stirred up . Our dive 2 on this day saw us return the previous day ’ s dive to attempt some scanning in preparation for some photogrammetry of the site where we had found the large old oyster shells . To do this Ian videoed one level , then Andy and I came in and intentionally messed up the viz by wafting away a layer of silt ; once it had settled , Ian scanned the next layer down .
Between these dives there was an option to head out to a new area and plant out some new seagrass , so most of our group headed out with hessian bags , ready to do some ( sea ) gardening . Sunday also brought the option for a 3rd dive in a very shallow channel ( 2-3m deep ) to do an oyster survey . The idea was to log any live ones , also using the quadrat system . Two teams were lucky enough to find some live ones in their quadrats .
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DAY 4 . We started with a dive briefing from Lula de Lisle on a new dive site , as she was Dive Manager for the day . We were diving a wall , continuing our hunt for live oysters . Sadly , none were found , however one team found what appeared to be a vertebrate from a whale and another team found the head !
The afternoon dive is now known as the marmite golf ball dive . Four divers loved it and the rest hated it ( two of us took the afternoon off ). The original dive site had to be aborted due to now being under a fish farm , the backup site was apparently absolutely caked in brittle stars hugging golf balls .
DAY 5 . Today , we undertook more visual surveys in new locations . Our first dive was mainly on a muddy seabed at 20m , which led into a gentle rocky slope . Personally , I quite enjoyed the muddy seabed , as it was covered in all three UK species of beautiful sea pens ; slender , tall and phosphorescent .
Unfortunately , our hunt for native oysters on this site failed . Dive 2 was a bit of a non-starter , as the viz below 10m was nonexistent , to the point where I lost my buddy , Ian , despite the 20,000 blinding lumens of lights he was packing . After a 360-degree search , I aborted and surfaced to see my buddy about to be picked up by the crew . Everyone else had varying levels of success , including Andy and Denise who searched the shallows once they realised the viz was better above 6m .
Between these two dives we were lucky enough to pop in the Kilchoan Estate , hosted by Marnik and see the work they have been doing rewilding on the land and the sea , as well as surveying the local seabeds with small solar powered ROVs .
DAY 6 . Our final bonus dive day saw us heading back to Dunstaffnage , and a return dive on the Breda . Thanks to being off-grid most of the week , we all came home to complete the underwater surveyor course pilot and give feedback on our real-life experience to help improve the course .
Huge thanks to Andy Hunt for organising , plus Bob Anderson , Tash and Neil on the Clasina ; Ian Hicks for being my buddy , and Tanya , Louise , Denise , Maggie , Karen and Pete , Liz and Pete for helping to make it a fab week . Also , a huge thanks to Catherine , Eric and Philip at Seawilding . Finally , thanks go to Marnik van Cauter and the team at Kilchoan Estate for all their insights and sharing of knowledge . �