Coal for the pub fire recovered by Chris Harrison and Harry Cowan
Glyn Mountain and Margaret Abbott with a pair of visiting divers !
Are there many local wrecks ?
Near to the isle , we have a very sheltered wreck in shallow water that is now our training site . It also has a large underwater cave on the site which adds interest . Offshore , we dive 11 wrecks from 5m to 52m deep , some of which were discovered by the club . These have all been researched in detail and you can see the resulting 11 wreck tours with drawings and wreck histories on our website .
Has the club been involved in any other special projects ?
We want to help support marine life . Ten years ago , we had a group of divers who were keen on Seasearch and we submitted reports for most of our coastal sites . A decade later , we plan to revisit these sites for an update . We will also be participating in a seagrass project in Loch Ryan as part of the Solway Coast and Marine Project ( SCAMP ), which is an ambitious 15-year project led by Dumfries and Galloway Council ’ s Environment Team and the Solway Firth Partnership . We hope to provide a database of photographs of our diving activities for use by the SCAMP project and others . We took the opportunity to promote the club in an article in the Solway Firth Partnership magazine , ‘ Tidelines ’. This enabled the club to showcase the local marine environment and created the initial contact with the Solway Firth Partnership .
And for wreck divers ?
We are also working on our local wreck resources ; it ’ s time to draw new pictures of the wrecks and complete the videos we have of them . Happily , we have a number of new marks given to us by local fishers to explore ; a number of known wrecks have not yet been found .
Last year , as part of our Advanced Diver training , we lifted , recovered and restored a large one-tonne anchor that had been revealed after winter storms . This is now displayed with an information plaque outside our local pub , the Steam Packet Inn .
The year ahead sounds action-packed .
With new marks to research , more club trips and training planned , developing the partnership with the SCAMP project , developing club skills and training more diver cox ’ ns , we will be busy . Several clubs have contacted us to check out diving with us and we are always ready to welcome visiting divers and show them our littlevisited dive sites . We ’ re just hoping for better weather than last year . �
Note : All items recovered in accordance with Receiver and MMO rules
Chris Harrison retrieves snagged fishing gear
Glyn and Chris with recovered Byers anchor
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