View Full Version : St Abbs 15 July 07
Conditions were perfect! Charlie, Mogwai, Airmonster, myself and Dan had a good day out.
Cathederal Rock first then a bimble around the broad craig, little green carr and big green carr. I will let Charlie most the blog as he had the camera and can post some piccies and maybe a video too.
Highlights:
My suit leaked, dan forgot his suit and had to borrow a wetsuit, conger, lobiies, loads of nudibranches, loads off pipefish and huge lumpsucker at the end of dive 1.
I have sunburn on my back, shoulders and face and hole in my drysuit neck seal.
Cheers for joining me guys although I was wet it was a good day out, suit getting dropped of wednesday.
look forward to the blog later, I might add to it too.
Just checked, it was definitely a lumpsucker, cant wait to see the picture Charlie!
a fantastic day out: thanks to chris for instigating it & to the others for coming along
the lumpsucker was a beauty :D :cool:
I'm editing the photos but they're not perfect: it was a particularly difficult critter to photograph as it was swaying about in the middle of a mass of kelp (that's my excuse :eek:)
I'll try & upload something later
I've also got some vid footage that I'll edit but won't have a chance to do that until later in the week
cheers
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/chrisareid/st%20abbs/IMG00084.jpg
Charlie and me buddy checking at entry point
come on charlie, im near to bursting....:D
did you see a wolf fish??
What a cracking day. Great weather (evidenced by my hugely glowing fizog) some excellent dives and some critters i have never seen before. Thanks to Chris for organising, Airmonster for driving and everyone for the buddying. Going to become a more frequent visitor down there i think. :)
Cant seem to find a pic on the web of the lumpsucker we saw, wil need to wait for Charlie to keep us informed of what it was:)
Cant seem to find a pic on the web of the lumpsucker we saw, wil need to wait for Charlie to keep us informed of what it was:)
I thought he looked like the lumpsucker on this page (http://www.oceaneyephoto.com/gallery_32938.html)
A crowd of us went across east to dive with aquastars,
feckin'brilliant days diving,
1st dive 10.00am the skipper Steve was being cagey about site name
but it was a drift dive down to 15m, if carlsberg made dives in scotland this would have been the one!Vis was spectaculer 15-20m, 15 degrees
hunners of life,seals,shoals,lobbies a go-go,scopian fishes,snake pipefish
various colours sizes and length,nudies,,gullies and toppography were
just amazing,everyone had a blast, then we had a great surface interval
as St Abb's were having their annual Herring Queen Gala, so the little quaint
fishing village was awash with,food,stalls,car boot sales,entertainment,
exotic animal stall,St Abb's/eyemouth sea search stall, so we all skulked about in the glorious sunshine,buying tat and eating this and that.
So it was back to aquastars for 2nd dive at 14.00pm,weather and sea conditions were still perfect...so kitted up again and back on the rib to do the cave dive,the diving reminded me of my only dive abroad in Croatia
which was excellent and again here,lots of life and an excellent buddy,
who forgot to pack his dry-suit and got a hired one from from AS and was
sh*t and got drenched, he still persevered, THAT'S HOW GOOD THE
DIVING WAS TODAY,he was freezing well it was 15 degrees
the photos aren't very great I'm afraid :eek:
http://staff.stir.ac.uk/charles.mcgurk/diving/CA150707/photo5.jpg
http://staff.stir.ac.uk/charles.mcgurk/diving/CA150707/photo6.jpg
I'll upload the video footage in a few days
Who are you kiddin'
the photos are brilliant.
is the 1st fish a lumpsucker as chris suggests?
my 2 photos are of the same fish :rolleyes:
my 2 photos are of the same fish :rolleyes:
ok i just picked myself up off the floor. sorry bout that.
first one looks very wide in girth, 2nd one looks more, dare i say 'fish like'.
so c'mon... did you see a wolf fish?
ok i just picked myself up off the floor. sorry bout that.
first one looks very wide in girth, 2nd one looks more, dare i say 'fish like'.It really was a bizarre but beautiful critter. The colours were amazingly vibrant. I've never seen those sorts of shades of purple in UK marine life previously. Quite outstanding. Major kudos to chris for finding it & dispatching mogwai to grab me to try & document its existence!
come on charlie, im near to bursting....:D
did you see a wolf fish??
:( :mad: :o
gives me an excuse to go back
Compare these photos (cf. the dorsal & verntral tubercles & lateral ridges) & I think it's pretty conclusive that chris was right in identifying it as a male lumpsucker, Cyclopterus lumpus
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Lumpy.jpg
http://staff.stir.ac.uk/charles.mcgurk/diving/CA150707/photo6.jpg
here's a less fortunate individual from French waters:
http://www.ifremer.fr/delar/images/lump.jpg
excellent research Charlie, I also like your photo of Broad Craig..."Who stole the water?" :D
Looking forward to the video.
As for a wolfish, I think we need to get on MV Selkie I will try and arrange for a trip towards the end of the season as he is a bit quieter then. I already have 3 trips arranged in august and two in September but the boats are full. I will ask if they have any openings, its usually a friday night or sunday that I go down.
But going down after work and doing a search for that Anglerfish isnt a bad idea, and if the lumpsucker is a regular, try and get some more photos of the cutie! ;)
Sounds good, chris. :)
I'm definitely keen to explore the area further. :D
I really felt that we should have seen that anglerfish: we must have been very close to its territory. :rolleyes:
Airmonster
16-07-07, 10:53
First dive at St Abbs and I couldn't have asked for any better conditions, warm, clear sunny skies, little wind and crystal clear water. This is how diving should be. Tremendous amount of life, I have never seen so many Urchins in one place, really friendly Wrasse, shoals of little fish (Saith I think), Lobsters, Congers, Nudibranches and an elusive Lumpsucker. Nice swim through at Cathedral Rock and a labyrinth of nooks and crannies to explore en route, I'm glad I was not doing the navigation or we would still be there trying to find out way back. Two good long dives.
The only downside, a bit of a walk from the car to the entry point and I managed to slip on the rocks on the way in to dive 1 and break my wee toe on my left foot, but well worth it, what an incredible site
I'll definitely be back here.
Thanks to Charlie and Chris for there spot-on navigation and Mogwai for the company,
When we going back?
/Colin. :D
Is it definitely broken then? It was a lovely purple/black colour.
Is it definitely broken then? It was a lovely purple/black colour.
did it resemble a lumpsucker ?
one broken toe and one ripped neck seal, EDC are going to repair mine this week, although not sure if I will have it for the weekend, brownie points time! But midweek next week to St Abbs??
Bad luck on the toe Colin!!
just stole a sneak peak at Charlies video on youtube :D Great work, and you had attractive stars to deal with too :D
Think the video captures the escence of the day, well done charlie!
nice vid charlie,
how did you manage to get the pipefish to give you the OK signal :confused:
just stole a sneak peak at Charlies video on youtube :D Great work, and you had attractive stars to deal with too :D
Think the video captures the escence of the day, well done charlie!
nice vid charlie,
how did you manage to get the pipefish to give you the OK signal :confused:
cheers guys! :D
here it is...
YfOmh3U6_7o
link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOmh3U6_7o)
Could someone post the link to Charlie's vid please?
I might just be having a "blonde moment" (or should that be a "Leffe Blond" moment?) but I can't see a link in the thread and I've tried a few searches on YouTube without finding it.
Help!!!!!!!!!!
Al.
Could someone post the link to Charlie's vid please?
I might just be having a "blonde moment" (or should that be a "Leffe Blond" moment?) but I can't see a link in the thread and I've tried a few searches on YouTube without finding it.
Help!!!!!!!!!!
Al.
Ignore the above, Charlie solved my problem while I was typing!
Excellent video, looks like it was a good dive.
Thanks for sharing it with us,
Al.
Excellent vid charlie make me want to go back there, its been a while.
good vid Charlie.
I just gotta do St. Abbs before I go.
Can it be dived in a 5mm semi? :o
thanks, guys :cool:
good vid Charlie.
I just gotta do St. Abbs before I go.
Can it be dived in a 5mm semi? :o
Chris' pal Dan dived it with a borrowed semi-dry on Sat (he forgot his drysuit). He lasted 65 minutes (well, he didn't have much choice really because we weren't about to surface :rolleyes:)!
thanks, guys :cool:
Chris' pal Dan dived it with a borrowed semi-dry on Sat (he forgot his drysuit). He lasted 65 minutes (well, he didn't have much choice really because we weren't about to surface :rolleyes:)!
I'll just need to hire cylinders and find some weight, and I have a new bcd to play with:o
I'll just need to hire cylinders and find some weight, and I have a new bcd to play with:o
Well within the comfort zone then!
(Remember my fun and games in Clyde in a 7mm long john & 7mm jacket? That was COOOOLLLLLDDDD!)
:D:D:D
I'll just need to hire cylinders and find some weight, and I have a new bcd to play with:o
could no doubt lend you both if you wouldn't mind making a small contribution to our club funds :) :cool:
could no doubt lend you both if you wouldn't mind making a small contribution to our club funds :) :cool:
no problem, thank you, done deal.
Charlie excellent wee vid.
great vid, looks like you guy's had a great dive.
cheers, gedan :)
it was an excellent day out :cool:
superb video Charlie,very well done :)
hope you dont mind charlie, but I have now stuck your video onto DVD and looks not too shabby on the 42" plasma :D
hope you dont mind charlie, but I have now stuck your video onto DVD and looks not too shabby on the 42" plasma :D
:cool:
Next time I see you, I'll give you a DVD of the video exported directly from Adobe Premiere Pro & burnt with Adobe Encore. It's of much higher resolution than the YouTube encoded version (it's also got a couple of 'bonus tracks').
sounds good and looking forward to it!!