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View Full Version : Sea Pens at last!



Yogi Diver
18-01-09, 20:19
Twin tanks and me joined Dive Tramp at the Picnic site , just past the Corran ferry on the road to Fort William yesterday to try out a site none of us had dived before.
TT and me went in first and saw thousands of brittlestars and a sandy slope at 5M, same again at 10M, and again at 20M and again at 26M at which point we agreed to knock it on the head and return.
We decided a second dive here was not worth doing and packed up to drive towards Appin to a site where DT had promised me I would finally track down those elusive Sea pens, I had never seen before.
Following his instructions we swam out for about 100M towards the White Cottages across the loch, a bearing of 300 degrees before dropping down to find we were still in only 4M. We continued on this bearing for another 15 minutes:eek: before the sandy slope changed to a fine silt at 22 metres and we saw our first Slender Sea Pen.
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/Yogibuzzard/Dive%20Photos/Loch%20Linnhe%20170109/DSCF2295.jpg

Another 5 or 6 minutes of searching around in the silt, with the visibility disappearing rapidly resulted in several of these creatures being spotted, some of them up to 3 feet tall but I was starting to give up hope of any Phosphorescent Sea Pens till I spotted this one,

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/Yogibuzzard/Dive%20Photos/Loch%20Linnhe%20170109/DSCF2298.jpg

Happy at last, we headed back on the long swim back to shore.
Total Dive Time, 42 minutes, most of it over featureless sand/silt for the sight of a dozen or so Slender Seapens and one solitary Phosphorescent Seapen.

Was it worth it? Yes. I've wanted to see these creatures for some time now and verify that they are not just a plastic model DT carries with him on every dive.:D
Would I do it again? No chance. It was a long, boring dive and we completely missed the wall DT had promised me was there.
Still, we had a good day out and it was nice to meet up with DT and his mate, Chris and the guys from Inverness at the Picnic Site.

Thanks for the invite DT and the information on this site.

TWIN TANKS
18-01-09, 22:00
AT LEAST THE PINK ONE CAME OUT!!!:D
GLAD WE NEVER WENT OUT TODAY:eek:

Mikey B
18-01-09, 22:32
Cool pics :cool:
Seen a few seapens recently,Loch Fyne on the east coast.I've dived the picnic site it's not a bad wee dive,nice rocky reef with lots of dogfish.

jorawley
18-01-09, 22:45
loch duich - on the south side, has loads of sea pens... not to mention pottery, few dog fish, thornback ray - nice sheltered bimble....

tried heading over there today - snow at inverness and even more the further west we headed - got as far as the clunie inn (our regular pre and post dive meet up) and the van was struggling, final straw was when i tried to get camera from the back for some lovely scenic shots of the deer in over a foot of snow, mountains etc and the door handle broke clean off... :(

Brian2
06-05-09, 23:34
Seen sea pens:
West side of Loch Fyne North of Inverary (only about 70 mm long
Round the Garvalachs
Around the Breda
East side of Lismore

Yogi Diver
07-05-09, 07:28
I've subsequently seen them at St Cats and Risga Pinnacle, Loch Sunart.:)

ShariB
07-05-09, 08:06
When we dived the Port Napier the other week, ther was a wee garden of them beside the wreck. They are really nice to see. We were really chuffed to see them in the "flesh" so to speak.:D:D