Leatherback turtle in Dingle

Much excitement on Tuesday evening when we got word of a large leatherback turtle that had been brought in to the aquarium in Dingle. Apparently the six foot long animal had been caught in a line running off a lobster pot in Brandon Creek (the Cuas) and had been brought in by some fishermen. How they had managed to get her in we don't know as she was very, very feisty and very powerful. Scientists Tom Doyle from UCC and John from University of Wales Swansea were rushed over in order to fit a satellite tag on her back. Myrtle, as we decided to call her, was only stressed and not injured and was released back into the Cuas this morning. Tom later told us that this tagging was highly significant as it was the first time it has been attempted in Europe as leatherbacks are pelagic and opportunities to place tags are few and far between other than when they land to nest. This tag would hopefully result in a wealth of information such as where they go and how deep they dive - all crucially important in the fight to help this endangered species. Visit the Irish Sea Leatherback Turtle Project website at http://www.turtle.ie/ for lots more information.
We were all absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to see this magnificent animal and amazed to know that such large turtles frequent one of our regular divesites!!

Rasher the divemaster?

Rasher does surface watch,

helps Lisa teach a class

and keeps on eye on Colin during a refresher course

The Wild Bank

Another great day out yesterday ... flattish conditions and lots of sunshine saw us heading for The Wild Bank, a series of pinnacles way out off Slea Head. The top is around 9m but it drops away sharply to 40m.

The best stuff is on the western side at around 15-25m and it's easy to get carried away if you have a camera in your hand. Neal, as usual, put us right on the spot and after the usual plankton layer, once we got below 12m, the visibility cleared right up - and not a bit of current either - perfect! The jewel anemones cover the rocks in big swathes of colour, interspersed with plumose anemones and some of the biggest boring sponges I've ever seen.

The rocks themselves have canyons running through them where we saw dozens of all types of wrasse and hundreds of pollack. Making our way back up we swam through a huge school of cod which had somehow avoided all the fishing boats in the area. Neal managed to get a good photo of a squat lobster, not an easy task as they are notoriously shy and hide themselves away in little crevices.

Fun at An Tearaght - by Lisa Geismar

We all started the day of Sunday 7th August with a sense of adventure as Jacquie had been planning a rather special diving trip to An Tearaght, the western most island of the Blaskets. The actual paying passengers were few and far between and the dive centre was closed to allow everyone to enjoy the day. There ended up being three boats in the convoy, each one loaded up with people and dive gear not to mention huge amounts of food, drink and the most important of all – chocolate!
Upon arriving at the north western tip of Great Blasket Island the cloud had yet to lift and for those two boats without a GPS it was a quick radio call to the Dive Centre boat to guide everyone the last few miles. The top half of An Tearaght was covered in cloud and looked quite eerie as we drove around looking for the best spot to dive. At last it was decided and the first groups to go in agreed on their plans before kitting up, doing their Burger With Relish And Fries checks and were in the water in record time (for those of you who know how much faffing divers usually do).
Derek and I had agreed to have a quick peek at 40m, the visibility was amazing – a good 20m+ and there was a good amount of fish life but the anenomes for me were just stunning, so much colour. During our safety stop we were hanging out at a wall when we came across a rather large female crayfish full of eggs which was great to see. If I hadn't been missing the sunshine so much I would have definitely stayed in longer although there were also those waiting for us to surface so they could have their own adventure.
At last everyone had had a dive and it was time for a decent surface interval. An Tearaght has a lighthouse so the skippers unloaded those who wanted to make the climb while trying to avoid being washed up onto the steps covered in mussels. The climb up was long but well worth the views from the helipad as by this time the cloud had lifted and you could see for many miles. After a good look around it was time to descend back to the boats. The skippers decided we could jump off the island and swim out to them unless you were my skipper who very kindly nosed in to pick me up – I didn't want to get my woolly hat wet!

Time now for Dive 2 which took us to Inishvickillane. This dive reminded me of home (Wellington, NZ) – on a good day - the boulders, swimthroughs, kelp and colour. We managed to drop down straight onto another crayfish and again the anenomes were plentiful. The way home we dropped in to say hi to some seals but they didn't seem to be as curious as the ones on previous dives and then as we were heading for home a phone call was received to say some minky whales had been spotted off Dunmore Head. Unfortunately, try as we might they were nowhere to be seen. A good day was had by all and I would thoroughly recommend it, it is definitely some of the best cold water (some would say almost warm) diving to be had.

TV stars in the making!

TG4 visited us on a rainy day last week and Della became an instant star as she is the only staff member who speaks Irish! Having brushed up on her diving vocabulary, Della was interviewed about the joys of diving off the west coast of Ireland. Following that, presenter, Clíodhna ní Chinneíde went off for a try dive with Neal to one of our favourite sites, Thornback Alley. The programme is part of the series 'An Tuath Nua' and will be shown sometime in the autumn.

Doin me Divemaster...

I'm Della, the local, Irish speaking, tg4 appearing trainee Divemaster. I've been doing the Divemaster course for nearly a month now and it's been great so far.

Although I was helping about the centre last summer, I've got more of a clue as to how the centre is run and how much work it takes everyone everyday. I've also a much better insight into the needs of divers and how to tell when someone needs some help, this has all come with doing the course as I'm a bit clueless by nature sometimes!

Della (left) with Jacquie

In the past few weeks I've come across some new and interesting situations which all help with my building up of experience. I'm well used to the stupid and ditsy questions from lost tourists but some dives have been a little strange. For example one try-diver yesterday decided to tell me in handsignals of her algaphobia (fear of seaweed for those not in the know) which didn't really help the situation seen as we were diving in the kelp ridden underwater world of Smerwick harbour.

The instructors here couldn't be more helpful with answering my questions and pointing out the bits I've forgotten in the nicest way possible and although this sounds terribly cheesy, I learn something new from them everyday.

A divemaster's duties sometimes include being creative above water too!

So far I've completed half of the written exams and most of the practical ones and I'm doing quite well. I'll keep you all posted on my progress. Until next time, Delia Ni Chiobhain.

Photos from An Tearaght

Thanks to Conor Tolan for the pics.

... and things that make us frown

Illegal salmon nets - they're all over the place at the moment. This is from the ENFO website :

"The survival of the salmon depends on two factors: first that the fishermen control their catches so that there will always be enough salmon to provide for the next generation and secondly, keeping rivers and lakes free from pollution. The key factor in maintaining our salmon fisheries is control of the ways of fishing. The law restricts the numbers of nets which may be used in our coastal waters and completely forbids netting in fresh water. The nets must be kept below certain dimensions and no netting at all is allowed at weekends. If fishermen would obey the regulations and if pollution and interference with rivers could be controlled, then the future of the salmon would be assured. At present the laws are adequate for the protection of the stocks. The most intractable problem is a psychological one: many fishermen do not yet accept the fact that the laws have been drafted above all things to protect their livelihood."

Enforcement of the closed season seems inadequate to say the least, with almost everyone knowing who is responsible for putting the nets out yet looking the other way. Blame the seals for low salmon catches .... perhaps look a little closer to home.

Things that make us smile....

What a rainy, windy day it has been! Nevertheless we managed a double dive this morning with John O'Connor, Kevin from Tralee and Mark from England. As I sat on the boat thinking what a grim day to do surface watch, I couldn't believe my eyes - a sunfish waving at me from less than two feet away. As I cautiously approached, thinking it would vanish below as usual, it just kept swimming towards me! For the whole of the rest of the dive it swam towards the boat, then past and back round - always watching me watching him - sometimes raising his head out of the water so I could see his mouth. He was swimming above the diver's bubbles and Mark even had the good fortune to look up and see him when he was on his safety stop. A real treat - I haven't stopped smiling yet!!

Toxic death?

Had a lovely couple of dives on the Manchester Merchant yesterday along with the two Shanes, Brendan, Kevin, Martin, Ben & Lisa. Only trouble was that the fish-life appears to be in big trouble.... No sign of the big schools of pollack and over-sized congers. Instead we saw many, many dead fish and crabs. When I said during the brief that we would see lots of tompot blennies, I wasn't wrong, but I didn't expect them to all be dead. The only things that seemed to be thriving were huge schools of juvenile bib and some monstrous lobster (obviously lots of food available). At first I thought someone had been using explosives to fish, but the wreck was still in good shape. It seems that the 'red tide' may be responsible - a highly toxic algal bloom, but I haven't been able to find out anything about the grey coating that is covering every surface and slowly smothering all the anemones and dead man's fingers. It looks like a nuclear winter down there. Not sure about the cause but it seems to de-oxygenate the water and particularly affects shellfish. There is not much info around about it killing off all the fish. If anyone has seen this before or knows anything about it, we would love to hear about it.
Jacquie