MY Alastor 29/12/12

MY Alastor 29/12/12
Observer Name: Kerri Clarke, Andrew Clarke, David Mellon
Observation Start Time: 13.30
Observation End Time: 14.36
Weather Conditions: Overcast, recent heavy rain and strong winds
Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 22m
Water Visibility: Poor
Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Medium
Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): High
Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 9C
Notable Flora: Dead mans fingers, Ascideiella Asprsa, Sagartia Elegans, Large areas of sea orange and Esperiopsis fucrum sponges. Notable Fauna: 7 edible crabs, 12 common starfish, 1 butterfish , 1 dragonet, 1 squat lobster, 1 corkwing wrasse
 Human Activity at Site: Boats moored at site
Rubbish/Pollution: Sardine tins removed from wreck. Large sheet of thin orange plastic removed from stern. Other Observer Comments: Reduced life in winter including lack of conger eel. ? Move to deeper waters in winter or another part of wreck. Limited evidence of dead crabs and no shoaling fish.

New strobe taken for a test dive!

We have a new strobe to accompany our little Canon S95, and it is working out fabulously! For once we were able to get some slightly 'wider' shots in the grim viz on The Alastor - hurray! Check the Picasso page for the pics from today's dive.

 

 

Ringhaddy Sound 23/12/12

Observer Name: Kerri Clarke

Observation Start Time: 12.00

Observation End Time: 13.00

Weather Conditions: Wind and rain

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 10m

Water Visibility: Poor

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Low

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): Medium

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 9c

Notable Flora: Very little at depth. Seaweed close to shore

Notable Fauna: 1 Painted Goby,  1 Leach's spider crab, 2 shore crab , 3 common hermit crabs, 4 common starfish, , 1 spiny spider crab. 

Human Activity at Site: Lots of boats moored at site, some boating activity. 

Rubbish/Pollution: Some plastic bottles at the shore. 

Other Observer Comments: Notable reduction in the amount of life in winter months. 

MY Alastor 13/09/2012

MY Alastor 12/08/12

Observer Name:  Kerri Clarke, Andrew Clarke

Observation Start Time: 11.00

Observation End Time: 12.00

Weather Conditions: Overcast

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 22m

Water Visibility: Fair

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Medium

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): low

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 13C
,
Notable Flora: Dead mans fingers, Ascideiella Asprsa, Sagartia Elegans, feather stars and Lightbulb squirts cover all surfaces of the wreck. Large areas of sea orange and Esperiopsis fucrum sponges. Some boring and breadcrumb sponges

Notable Fauna: 7 goldsinny, 2 tompot blenny,1 Yarrells  blenny, 1 Scorpion fish 5 edible crabs, 15 common starfish, 5 butterfish , 3 dragonet, 1 conger eel, shoals of bib and pollock, 2 large common lobsters, 2 squat lobster, 1 corkwing wrasse

Human Activity at Site: Boats moored at site

Rubbish/Pollution: None

Other Observer Comments: Lots of fish life currently on the wreck with many shoals of bib and pollock, including juveniles of the species.

Ringhaddy Sound - 13/09/2012

Observer Name: Kerri Clarke

Observation Start Time: 11:00

Observation End Time: 12:00

Weather Conditions: Overcast

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 14m max

Water Visibility: Fair

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Medium

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): Low

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 13C

Notable Flora: Ascidiella aspersa. Sea weed close to shore and on mooring lines. Occasional areas of sea orange sponge and Esperiopsis fucorum. 

Notable Fauna: 10 Painted Goby, 2 Butterfish, 10 rock goby, 2 Long-legged Spider crab, 2 Leach's spider crab, 6 Velvet Swimming crab, 5 shore crab, 2 harbour crab, 3 common hermit crabs, 20 common starfish, 3 feather stars, 1 common sunstar, 1 purple sunstar, 1 spiny spider crab, 1 juvenile long spined scorpion fish.   

Human Activity at Site: Lots of boats moored at site. 

Rubbish/Pollution: None

Other Observer Comments: Lots of horse mussel shells but no live  mussells seen.

MY Alastor 12/08/12

Observer Name:  Kerri Clarke, Andrew Clarke

Observation Start Time: 12.30

Observation End Time: 13.30

Weather Conditions: Overcast, wind and rain

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 22m

Water Visibility: Poor

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Medium

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): low

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 13C
,
Notable Flora: Dead mans fingers, Ascideiella Asprsa, Sagartia Elegans, feather stars and Lightbulb squirts cover all surfaces of the wreck. Large areas of sea orange and Esperiopsis fucrum sponges. Some boring and breadcrumb sponges

Notable Fauna: 7 goldsinny, 2 tompot blenny, 5 edible crabs, 2 sea urchins, 10 common starfish, 1 actinothoe sphyrodeta (anenome), 1 dragonet, 1 conger eel, shoals of bib and pollock, 2 large common lobsters, 1 purple sunstar, 1 little cuttle. ?? grey seal.

Human Activity at Site: Lots of boating activity.

Rubbish/Pollution: Rope and plastic on wreck.

Other Observer Comments: Lots of plankton visible in the water, large shoals of fish present, possible grey seal sighting but due to bad visibility we can not be 100% sure. The areas of Esperiopsis fucrum sponges appear to be spreading. Lots of dead crabs on the wreck. 

MY Alastor - 21/07/12

MY Alastor - 10\06\12


Observer Name: David Mellon, Kerri Clarke, Andrew Clarke

Observation Start Time: 14.15

Observation End Time: 15.12

Weather Conditions: Overcast

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 22m

Water Visibility: Poor

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Medium

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): low

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 13C
,
Notable Flora: Dead mans fingers, Ascideiella Asprsa, Sagartia Elegans, feather stars and Lightbulb squirts cover all surfaces of the wreck. Large areas of sea orange and Esperiopsis fucrum sponges. Some boring and breadcrumb sponges

Notable Fauna: 3 goldsinny, 1 tompot blenny, 2 butterfish, 10 edible crabs, 2 sea urchins, 10 common starfish, 1 actinothoe sphyrodeta (anenome), I grey scorpion fish, 30 juvenile goby. 

Human Activity at Site: 2 other divers, some boaters.

Rubbish/Pollution: Sardine tins on the wrec

Other Observer Comments: Visibility was terrible, probably due to the rain. Grey scorpion fish appeared to be laying eggs in a shell on the side of the wreck. The sighting of juvenile gobys in the wreck was a first as the gobys are normally only seen in the surrounding areas. We did not visit the funnel so can not comment if the conger eel was there.

Ringhaddy Sound 23/06/2012

Observer Name: Kerri Clarke

Observation Start Time: 13.00

Observation End Time: 14.03

Weather Conditions: Overcast, rain

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 14m max

Water Visibility: Poor

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Medium

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): Low

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 13C

Notable Flora: Occasional small crops of lightbulb squirts and Ascidiella aspersa. Sea weed close to shore and on mooring lines. Occasional areas of sea orange sponge and Esperiopsis fucorum. 6 clumps of sea beard. 1 plumrose anemone living on the tyre.

Notable Fauna: 25 Painted Goby, 3 Butterfish, 5 rock goby (1male with eggs, another male possibly guarding eggs due to it's dark colour), 1 spiny squat lobster, 4 Long-legged Spider crab, 5 Leach's spider crab, 6 Velvet Swimming crab, 5 shore crab, 11 harbour crab, 20 common hermit crabs, 30 common starfish, 3 feather stars, 1 Candy Stripe flatworm, 2 fan worms (very small). Many of the crabs and the squat lobster were covered in parasitic barnacles.

Human Activity at Site: Lots of boats moored at site. Some sail boats and RIBs out on the Lough.

Rubbish/Pollution: Rubbish removed from shore. Coke cans, plastic tubs, plastic bags etc,

Other Observer Comments: Life covered every area of this site including the tyres that have been placed there to hold the line to the Alastor wreck and moorings in place. Some small areas where the sea bed has been cleared of life by heavy chain moorings. At around 9m there were many common mussel, horse mussel and  king scallop shells but no live species seen.

The Pins 16/06/12

Observer Name:  Kerri Clarke

Observation Start Time: 11.00

Observation End Time: 12.00

Weather Conditions: Overcast, rain

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 10m

Water Visibility: Medium

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): High

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): high

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 12C
,
Notable Flora: Area covered in various species of seaweed that can be seen in the video.
Small crops of lighbulb squirts.

Notable Fauna: 9 Ballan Wrasse, 7 common urchins, 2 male corkwing wrasse, 2 rock crook,  2 common star fish, 2 goldsnny, 1 spiny starfish, 2 bloody henry starfish, 2 pollock, nudibranch egg ribbon, 2 edible crabs, 1 spiny spider crab, 1 comb jelly. 1 white painted top shell (awaiting confirmation)

Human Activity at Site: Beach clean up along the shore (great work guys)

Rubbish/Pollution: None on wreck, lots of rubbish removed from the shore by National Trust Volunteers.

Other Observer Comments: Difficult to make out the few areas of wreckage left due to the growth of sea weed in the area. We found 2 separate Pins left on the site but there may possibly be two more. It is still possible to see the holes in the wood where other pins have been. Impossible to see the hull due to seaweed over growth.

New - submit log form

We have added the 'Submit Log' form to the blog. This will enable any divers to submit an observation log if they are diving in one of the 5 Project Baseline sites in Strangford Lough.

All information is welcome and don't worry if you don't know the name of every nudibranch you see, a description is just fine.

So if you are out in Strangford this weekend, let us know what you see.

Submit Log

MY Alastor - 10\06\12

Observer Name: David Mellon and Kerri Clarke

Observation Start Time: 12.30

Observation End Time: 13.30

Weather Conditions: Sunny

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 19m

Water Visibility: Poor

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): High

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): high on port side of wreck

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 12C
,
Notable Flora: Dead mans fingers, Ascideiella Asprsa, Sagartia Elegans, feather stars and Lightbulb squirts cover all surfaces of the wreck. There are also sea orange and Esperiopsis fucrum sponges.

Notable Fauna: Shoal of spratt, 20 bib, 10 goldsinny, 1 large corkwing wrasse, 4 cuckoo wrasse, 5 rock crook, 1 tompot blenny, 1 butterfish, 1 conger eel, 2 janolus cristalus (nudi), 6 edible crabs, 2 sea urchins, 20 common starfish, 1 actinothoe sphyrodeta (anenome)

Human Activity at Site: 4 other divers, lots of boating activity on the surface

Rubbish/Pollution: None on wreck

Other Observer Comments: Certain life inhabits certain areas on wreck. Corkwing wrasse is behind bath, conger eel in funnel and tompot blenny in hole on collapsed superstructure. Several dead crabs noted on this dive.

Google Earth is LIVE!

Our Google Earth mapper is finally live!


By downloading the Project Baseline: Strangford Lough file, it will enable you to view all data collected from our dives.


The process is simple:

1. Download Google Earth
2. Download Project Baseline: Strangford Lough mapper
3. Open the downloaded .kmz file from your computer
4. Click the "play" icon and enjoy!

The Inner Lees, 02/06/2012

Observer Name: Kerri Clarke

Observation Start Time: 11.00

Observation End Time: 11.40

Weather Conditions: Sunny, some cloud, light winds

Depth of Observations (indicate meters or feet): 9-11m

Water Visibility: Medium (3-6m)

Water Turbidity: (high, medium, low): Medium

Water Current Speed (high, medium, low): low

Water Temperature (indicate C or F): 11C

Notable Flora: Dead mans fingers and lightbulb squirts cover the port side of the wreck.

Notable Fauna: 10 Burrowing Anenome, 3 Goldsinny, 4 Common Prawns, 1 Leopard spotted goby, 1 Long-Spined Scorpion Fish, 1 Conger Eel, 2 Small Dab, 1 Ballan Wrasse, 5 Painted Goby, 17 Common Starfish, 6 Spiny Starfish, 3 Bloody Henry StarFish, 7 Common Sea Urchin. Featherstars cover the bottom to the port side of the wreck.

Human Activity at Site: Other divers on the wreck lead to a loss of visibility at the back on the wreck. Mussel raft moored to wreck, some boating activity around wreck.

Rubbish/Pollution:Several empty mackerel tins removed.

Other Observer Comments: Observations are from the port side of the wreck where the bottom is composed of sand and shale.

Welcome to Project Baseline: Strangford Lough.

This is a Project Baseline study of 5 areas within Strangford Lough; see The Overview page for full details. In short, this blog will be used by a team of scuba divers to record and log as much information as they can, in relation to the relevant sites.

More posts and photos will follow as the observation dives begin.


Enjoy!