I got out diving today for the first time this month. Jo and I had a week in Skye earlier this month where I saw lots of dive sites and the viz looked amazing. But I stayed firmly on the shore for a change. I've been in the pool training most Fridays and we have most of the trainees at Stirling Uni ready for their first outing in 2 weeks. But today we were all qualified and it was deep dive training.
We went to the CM Barrier site on Loch Long as it was high tide about 11. I need high tide at some of these sites now to be able to get out at the end. Why make it hard? Alex and I dived together but his ears proved to be against us so we spent most of the dive at 6 metres. Viz was only about 2 anyway as it was pretty stirred up with the wind. But good to get wet. Near the end of the dive we managed to get a bit deeper on the cliff there and found a good sized lobster out in the open - well Alex did as I was just swimming over it. I was surprised at how it remained still when we shone the torches on it but then realised it had some fishing line caught round it. As I looked closer I realised it was caught in about 20 different fishing lines and must have been spinning because it seemed to have a big mess of line going into its mouth. It took me a few minutes to cut it free but I couldn't remove all the line from around the legs where it gets caught so decided to bring it up. We started to ascend and realised how much line was hanging about on the cliff. We promptly found a crab in as bad a predicament as the lobster and Alex cut it free as my hands were full already. It had a metal trace running to hooks that proved to be very difficult to cut so we need to rethink what we carry for cutting. Alex brought the crab up and then set about freeing them both from the remaining lines with a Swiss Army knife.
As you can see it is a good sized lobster but it was pretty tired. When I cut it free there was a big twist of about 20 monofilament lines going into its mouth but these we either pulled clear as we unravelled its legs or it must have swallowed. Hopefully its gut will not be blocked and it will be able to feed again.
The number of worm casts means it has had this shell for a while.
So that was the lobster freed up - Tank returned it to the sea. Now work started on the crab.
You can see by the colours here it is multiple lines and at least one metal trace.
The last few lines had to be unwrapped from the joints.
And here it is ready to be returned to the sea. It was an edible crab as you can see from the "pie crust" shell.
One of the things I've learnt over the years is to ensure my exit from the water. In this case to make it easier we deployed some straps to help us get back up.
It does make a big difference I've found and is easy to carry in the dive bag or the back of the car. We also carry some bags to clean up some of the rubbish we find. In this case we bagged the line we removed from the lobster and crab and some other line lying that Jo found. This stuff is deadly to birds yet still gets left around. We gave up on the huge number of bottles and cans lying around this dive site and the one just south of here. Why do people come out to a beautiful area and feel they can leave their rubbish there? Do they ever think what it will be like the next time they come back or is that too much for their tiny brains? Other people think the barrier is there for throwing their rubbish over. Which is obvious from these photos I took at a dive site on Loch Fyne last year.
A beautiful dive site but just over the barrier from the layby was this lot
And building rubbish is not left by fishermen or divers usually.
So that's my rant against all the rubbish I find at dive sites, in dive sites and in the creatures I see at dive sites. For those of you interested in the fuller effects of plastics on the creatures we find in the sea please go and look at the blog of Natural(ist) Blonde. She is working on the plastic in the guts of Langoustine and is passionate about her subject. She is also a good writer and well worth reading.
Oh yes. If you want a big secure storage cart of the type used by supermarkets to move their cigarettes about in there is one just over the barrier at CM Barrier but it is empty. Perhaps someone brought their beer along in it?
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