Raining Catsharks and Dogfish - 14/08/2014

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

This evening the Zookeeper and I were both feeling the spirit of exploration. We packed everything into HMS Buffy and sailed like modern day Columbus' or Magellans to the nearest dive site we've never dived. The site was St Catherine's Reef, also known as the Council Yard.

I believe it is typically used as a training site and the Finstrokes guide was a bit vague on instructions and I think some of the comments relate to nearby Seal Reef (St Catherines 2). We therefore decided to park in the lay-by as the yard itself is now permanently locked. You can see the edge of HMS Buffy on the right of the photograph above.

We kitted up, buddy checked and headed in at the shore just down from the car. The initial past of the dive was very shallow, sandy and very red (quite Martian really), then we dipped below a halocline and, although dark, the visibility was decent at around 8m.

Just as I was starting to think that I'd been duped into diving a sand seabed, we stumbled into the first of our 'shark' encounters of the day. In total, I think we had four - or one 'shark' just playing games with us. Then came the reef.

It seems to me that looking from above with the shore at the top of the picture, the reef is a y-shape with a longish tail extending out to the left. We clearly missed the main part of the reef and stumbled onto the reef at around 14m . Some exploration of the tail found some lobster creels filled with small crab reprobates and juvenile offender cod. The lobsters were ubiquitous by their absence. To me it seems lobster creels are the Victorian prisons of the seabed - overcrowded, without compassion and indiscriminate.

We then followed the tail back to the main reef, dipping down to 20m and working our way back up. We saw the usual Loch Fyne life and had a bit of fun en route. 

We agreed that this would make a pleasant night dive with its easy access, large reef and nearby street lights. We are resolved to go back sans soleil.

Pre-dive beach surfing

Catshark snout by Laura

Measuring Catsharks by Laura

Catshark

The crab Barlinnie

  

Facesucker

Catshark

Lobster creel

Spider crab with sea squirt crown

Pipefish