Welcome
Hello and welcome back – I’ ve returned from summer recess to resume normal SCUBA service. I spent much of June diving in Sulawesi, but weirdly it was hotter back home. I’ m writing this at the tail end of July, by which point the heatwave was still very much a part of everyday life.
It’ s great to see so many divers enjoying the weather, though it can get a bit squelchy waiting in your drysuit for the moment when you stride into the relief of cool water. Still, we’ re going diving under blue skies; it’ s a rewarding time of the year when all our training and planning pays dividends.
I’ m sure it’ s occurred to everyone that these spells of super-hot weather are becoming more common in the UK. Provisional Met Office statistics show that the summer of 2026 has brought record-breaking heatwaves, England’ s warmest June on record. It’ s only four years since the summer of 2022 gave the UK its first recorded temperature exceeding 40 ° C( in Coningsby, Lincolnshire).
There is an insidious side to this surfeit of sunshine. Our climate is changing, and our sea is at the frontline. After all, a heatwave doesn’ t stop at the waterline. Remember the widespread bleaching of Egypt’ s coral reefs in 2024? Researchers believe it was due to a hot wind that penetrated the water column, super-heating the reefs down to about 15 metres.
Similar phenomena can occur in temperate water zones like our own here in the British Isles. This year a series of marine heatwaves hit the UK, fuelled by the‘ heat domes’ sitting over our country [ see Protect our Seas, page 52 ]. The heatwave has been strongest off the coasts of eastern and southern England, where sea temperatures reached 4-5 ° C above average in places.
Should we welcome such warmer waters? I’ m afraid not. Our marine habitats are adapted to cool conditions, so kelp forests and seagrass meadows are similarly vulnerable to temperature changes. At this point we don’ t know what the long term effects of the changes are going to be, but with a powerful El Nino event brewing in the Pacific, super-heated seas are likely to remain a concern.
Simon Rogerson – Editor simon @ scubamagazine. co. uk
Cover photo: Smallspotted catshark on the wreck of the Jane, Shetland, by Simon Rogerson
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