Diving Isle of Man- Discover Diving

During the summer I worked at Discover Diving, Port St Mary. The only dive center left on the Isle of Man.

The owners, Michael are Steve were friendly and I found it easy to become part of the diving team.

I enjoyed my time diving with them which included training dives and leading fun dives. Most of the training dives were conducted off a pier in Port Erin while on fun dives we used the state of the art, Endeavour, as the dive boat (see photo below). 

The water temperature varied from 14c to 16c so I wore a dry suite for all of my dives.

I also took my PADI enriched air diving or nitrox course with Discover Diving. This is a ticket I've wanted to get for a while now. Diving with nitrox means you use oxygen enriched air so you are exposed to less nitrogen, this makes longer and frequent diving safer. 

The Isle of Man is home to an abundance of pristine underwater ecosystems. Sandy bottoms and rocky shores dominate the coast line with areas of beautiful edges and cliffs. A huge variety of organisms can be spotted from tiny nudibranchs and gloomy dead man fingers to massive brown crabs, lobsters and an array of pelagic fish. The island is home to a vast common and grey seal population which although I didn't get chance to dive with I free dived with the seals many times, so much fun. 

Big Thanks to Michelle, Steve, Anne and the rest of the dive crew. Hopefully I'll be back to dive with you again but for now it's be great. 

http://www.discoverdiving.im

For reference: 

Michelle Haywood- +44(0)7624 300090

                               Michelle@discoverdiving.im

Basking Shark Watch- I.O.M

I've recently moved to the Isle of Man after returning home from south east Asia. I'm waiting for an operation to fix my knee (ruptured ACL). While I'm waiting though it's been great to move to the island. Being by the sea and my girlfriend makes the waiting far more enjoyable. 

Basking sharks, which are the second largest fish in the ocean, pass through the Isle of Man following thermal fronts which provide an abundance of planktonic food. Sadly they are listed as endangered on the ICUN red list due to hunting, bycatch and disturbance (http://www.mcsuk.org/conservation_in_action/Basking+sharks/Threats+to+basking+sharks). 

The Manx basking shark watch was established to observe the abundance of basking sharks around the Isle of Man, raise awareness of the public to basking sharks and report the importance of the island to the basking shark population. This summer I was fortunate enough to join the team of researchers on the Happy Jack (photo below) on a observation mission to spot and record any marine life observations with the focus on basking sharks. 

We set off from port st Mary in the morning. Straight away we had a radio call reporting minke whale sightings. A local fishing boat made the observation near the calf of man. We set off on the 15min journey to spot the whales. Along the way I was pleased to see the abundance of marine birds (cormorants, 

Kittiwakes and Guillemots), common and grey seals and we were even lucky enough to see a Harbour porpoise. 

Unfortunately before we made it to the calf the Happy Jack suffered prop damage. We had to return to the Harbour and cancel the mission. Maybe better luck next time.

The Manx basking shark watch has been making recordings for 10 years. This year will see the release of a ten year report which aims to highlight the importance the waters of Isle of Man has to the global basking shark population. It may be used to promote the establishment of a designated protected area for basking sharks around the island. 

Sadly, 2014 has seen the lowest number of shark recordings in the past 10 years with only 9 sightings made this summer (manxbaskingsharkwatch.com). Plankton measurements have shown that zooplankton levels are low. This maybe due to unusually warm sea temperatures. In any case the zooplankton are a vital food source for basking sharks, a major reason why the sharks come to these waters. Without this food source the basking sharks have found differant feeding waters. Tags for previous years show some individuals are further north in cooler waters.

This is a great example of how a change in climate effects biotic communities within ecosystems. Whether this years warm temperatures were caused by human induced climate change, natural cycles (possible El Niño recorded in 2014?) or mixture of both it is clear to see a change in climate has effected plankton populations which has in turn effected basking shark populations. 

To me this highlights the importance of reducing human induced changes to the earths environment. Humans are disrupting natures balance, we don't yet fully understand the complexity and intricacy of the earths ecosystem, if we continue to disturb this delicate balance we don't know what may happen around the world. Lets work together to ensure we are living on a healthy life supporting earth. 

http://www.manxbaskingsharkwatch.com