UKDIVING waver, but these moments also present an opportunity to try something different, bring people together and rediscover what makes diving so rewarding.
At Dearne Valley Divers, that led us to start thinking beyond simply organising the next dive or the next social event. What could we do that would give our members a shared challenge, a genuine sense of purpose and the opportunity to be part of something bigger? The answer, it turned out, would take us far beyond our usual diving grounds and ultimately lead to an ambitious expedition to a remote Hebridean island.
Something better change
The Tiree idea was dusted off. Brief conversations with the Shark Trust and BSAC CEO Mary Tetley at the 2026 Go Diving show provided the catalyst, and within weeks I found myself on a Teams call with the Shark Trust, Edinburgh Napier University and NatureScot.
Then came another stroke of good fortune. Napier University had already identified Tiree for a summer tope shark research project. This fermented the opportunity to combine their work with a Citizen Science expedition. All three
Vaul Bay from ground level
organisations were hugely supportive of the idea of divers collecting valuable data on Tiree’ s tope sharks.
The final challenge was to sell the idea to Dearne Valley Divers and mobilise an expedition team— all within an insanely ambitious three-month window.
The proposal was put to members on 22 April: a self-sufficient team, open to divers of any qualification, travelling to Tiree to dive and snorkel, capturing underwater footage of tope behaviour and gathering data on their numbers.
The response was incredible. The club embraced the idea wholeheartedly and threw its full support behind the project. What had started as a slightly absurd idea was suddenly becoming a reality.
But new challenges appeared almost immediately. Tiree is a small, remote island where summer accommodation is scarce, ferry places can be limited and facilities are few. We needed to build the expedition from the ground up, which meant securing boat cover, a compressor, first-aid arrangements, camera systems and everything else required to operate as a self-sufficient team.
The clock was ticking …
A reconnaissance trip was hastily arranged. In June, the club Secretary Sir Paul Tarn and I headed to Tiree to assess boat moorings and slipways. We also met with Phyl Meyer and Hayley Douglas from the Tiree Community Development Trust to explain our plans and seek their advice.
From the outset, we wanted to benefit from local knowledge and ensure the expedition had as little impact as possible on
The expedition team, all smiles
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