Diving is a funny thing, you can expect to see one thing and then something else comes along that you entirely didn't expect. That was certainly the case when Jester and I headed along to Loch Long for a dive. Our plan had been to dive a site called Craggen, but a chance encounter with two divers at the A-Frames meant we switched lochs and headed over to Loch Fyne in the hope of finding better visibility.
It would seem a wise decision as our move to St Catherine's (despite taking us through blizzard conditions on the Rest & Be Thankful) reaped a plentiful bounty and a first for both myself and Jester. We kitted up in sleet and headed in.
Out first interesting encounter was with a particularly large langoustine who seemed quite happy to have us floating around, but he was pale into insignificance when we encountered one of the larger members of the spider crab family.
Now, here in Scotland we are used to seeing what we call sea toads and their little cousins macropodia rostrata. However, when we saw the crab in question, my instinct was to think it a King Crab of sorts - I've eaten them once in the US (never again by the way!). Our best guess is Lithodes Maja* - the northern or deep sea king crab. It was big an definitely the stuff of spider crab related nightmares.
The return journey saw us encounter a rock covered in flabellina lineata nudibranchs. It was quite special. However, with Jester having mask troubles it was time to call it quits and enjoy dekitting in the final moments of twilight and a brief period of dry weather.
* If you know better and want to enlighten me then please feel free!
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| Langoustine |
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| Lithodes Maja |
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