Death Ray - 26/01/2017

As regular readers will know last week Jester and I were hampered in our attempt to dive Drishaig Reef. This week there were no such impediments to our plan. We arrived under the cover of darkness and dived.

As we kitted up I was wondering if this my first ever night dive at this site. Well, as it turns out it is indeed the first time I've ever dived it under the cover of darkness. Although I have dived it on a summers evening and on the odd occasion when the light has been unable to penetrate much beyond 10m. So tonight was a first.

The site itself is pretty unspectacular - a steep muddy entry to the beach, a small sparse rocky reef and a very silty bottom. Aside from being home to some of the most easily accessed firework anemones it doesn't have a great abundance of (interesting to me) sea life.

Tonight was a little different - as we know every dive site improves with the onset of night.

As we descended Jester scored first with what would ultimately be the winning goal when he spotted a young thornback ray. I shot back with a big sea scorpion, a cuttlefish and two red gurnards. However, Jester was not to be bettered when he countered with two nudibranch species and a mermaid's purse.

What made the dive interesting for me was that I took my UV torch with me, but not unfortunately my yellow mask screen. It was clear that a few things will fluoresce:

• Corkwing wrasse
• Firework anemones
• Cuttlefish
• Flabellina Lineatas

After 35 minutes I was starting to feel the cold having forgotton half of my undersuit. So we slowly made our way back to the surface and celebrated the sighting of what we affectionately called the Death Ray.

The following photographs are all Jester originals.....

Firework Anemone

Sea Scorpion

Thornback (Death) Ray

Mermaid's Purse