UK Diving Places To Dive

We finned out from the shore and down, watched by the many small eyes of almost completely buried shore crabs, peering out from under the sandy slope, and arrived on a mussel bed. At only a few metres' depth, a whole new and unexpected vista had appeared. The mussels gaped as they filtered the nutrient-rich water, while among them shore and edible crabs foraged, looking for tasty pickings and trying the smaller mussels for crushability. Gliding butterfish appeared to flow their long slippery bodies over the shells as they hugged the contours of the mussel bed. Here and there, dahlia and occasionally plumose anemones thrust out their tentacles, grasping into the now gentle current for their sustenance. And starfish gorged themselves on the plentiful mussels.

It may sound odd, having described all this life, that the most enduring impression I have of diving in the Menai Strait is that of it being green! The Strait, the narrow band of water separating Ynys Mon (circonflexe on 'o'), the Isle of Anglesey, from mainland North Wales, is not the usual sea-ish blue-green associated with the waters of inshore British diving, but a really rich, vivid, grass green. This undoubtedly has much to do with the high turbidity resulting from large quantities of minute particles and plankton suspended in the fast-flowing water, and explains one of the inherent problems in diving this Strait - its visibility.On a bad day, visibility can be absolutely zero. On a good day, between five and six metres, and on an exceptional one, around 8m (this is rare!) When the visibility exceeds 3 - 4m the diversity and quantity of marine life can be startling.

Not surprisingly, the Strait is currently a proposed Marine Nature Reserve, with more than a thousand plant and animal species having been recorded in it and with a very variable sea-bed along its length. Dr Rohan Holt, Diving Officer of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Country Agencies (and Menai Sub-Aqua Club!) is a professional marine biologist who dives in order to survey the sea-bed around the British coast. Hehas dived in the Strait many times and believes that 'the area is of stunning habitat richness'. 'It has' says Dr Holt, 'unusually large numbers of filter feeders. In some parts especially, the sea-bed is coated with a thick layer of sponges and these can be both dramatic and spectacular under the right conditions.'

MENAI STRAIT	page - 1 \| 2 \| 3
We finned out from the shore and down, watched by the many small eyes of almost completely buried shore crabs, peering out from under the sandy slope, and arrived on a mussel bed. At only a few metres' depth, a whole new and unexpected vista had appeared. The mussels gaped as they filtered the nutrient-rich water, while among them shore and edible crabs foraged, looking for tasty pickings and trying the smaller mussels for crushability. Gliding butterfish appeared to flow their long slippery bodies over the shells as they hugged the contours of the mussel bed. Here and there, dahlia and occasionally plumose anemones thrust out their tentacles, grasping into the now gentle current for their sustenance. And starfish gorged themselves on the plentiful mussels. And this was only at the beginning of the dive! We descended further, on to bedrock. In many places, hydroids and barnacles dominated the hard surface. In others it was almost bare, with just the imprint of vanished barnacles disturbing the smooth rock. The reason soon became clear; crabs were munching their way thorugh thousands of these pre-packed snacks using their powerful pincers to snap off the rigid casing and extract its small animal contents. Then we arrived at a proud, rocky reef. This was an oasis of life in about a metre and a half of water, and a violent assault of colour and form. Sponges, anemones, hydroids, crabs and bottom-dwelling fish coated the rock with reds, yellows, purples, greys, browns and greens in an almost unimaginable array of shapes, textures and forms. Sagartia anemones coated some of the vertical rock faces. Orange sponges dominated others. Small scorpionfish peered around, unwilling to move and relying on their shape and patterning to blend into the underlying sea-bed. The nearest I can get to describing this part of the dive is to say that it was like diving on a rock garden.
	It may sound odd, having described all this life, that the most enduring impression I have of diving in the Menai Strait is that of it being green! The Strait, the narrow band of water separating Ynys Mon (circonflexe on 'o'), the Isle of Anglesey, from mainland North Wales, is not the usual sea-ish blue-green associated with the waters of inshore British diving, but a really rich, vivid, grass green. This undoubtedly has much to do with the high turbidity resulting from large quantities of minute particles and plankton suspended in the fast-flowing water, and explains one of the inherent problems in diving this Strait - its visibility.On a bad day, visibility can be absolutely zero. On a good day, between five and six metres, and on an exceptional one, around 8m (this is rare!) When the visibility exceeds 3 - 4m the diversity and quantity of marine life can be startling.
Not surprisingly, the Strait is currently a proposed Marine Nature Reserve, with more than a thousand plant and animal species having been recorded in it and with a very variable sea-bed along its length. Dr Rohan Holt, Diving Officer of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Country Agencies (and Menai Sub-Aqua Club!) is a professional marine biologist who dives in order to survey the sea-bed around the British coast. Hehas dived in the Strait many times and believes that 'the area is of stunning habitat richness'. 'It has' says Dr Holt, 'unusually large numbers of filter feeders. In some parts especially, the sea-bed is coated with a thick layer of sponges and these can be both dramatic and spectacular under the right conditions.' Much of the Anglesey coastline adjoining the Strait is classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Strait also has areas of National and Local Nature Reserve along its coasts. There is no doubt that the Strait is itself a beautiful feature within a stunning landscape, adjacent to the Snowdonia National Park -one of Britain's most precious national heritages. From an underwater perspective, there are so many dives you can do there. This one is so fascinating for me because you are seeing so many things as the reef keeps changing. But the underwater Strait suffers from a credibility problem when interpreted from the surface. The apparently murky water all too often is believed to mean that little lives or indeed can live in it. Diving it reveals that nothing could be further from the truth.
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