MacDuff Marine Aquarium

I had a lovely day on Saturday: I went diving at the MacDuff Marine Aquarium.  It's not a very big dive - the tank is roughly 20 ft wide and 16 ft deep - but it's fuller of sea-life than anywhere else I've dived in the UK. 

All the inhabitants are native species.  There are large cod and their ling cousins; black rays; plaice; dogfish and bull huss (both are types of shark); several huge wolf-fish, ash grey with stripes and fangs; an enormous plaice about the size of my dining-table who snapped at other fish that came near while she was being fed; two varieties of wrasse, beautifully coloured and marked; and two conger eels that I hand-fed (no, I still have both hands; I was holding fillets of mackerel for them to grab). 

It's the closest I'm ever likely to get to that size, type and quantity of fauna in UK waters.  We've fished our seas practically to death and what's left is understandably shy, especially if you're blowing bubbles at the time.  Many fish view bubbles as a sign of aggression, but sometimes they enjoy them: a couple of plaice were swimming through the columns of bubbles from the aeration machinery, enjoying the tickling sensation.

The aquarium has several smaller tanks, with beasties whose native habitat varies from rock-pools to deep water.  One tank held baby jellyfish; another had lump-suckers, weird box-shaped fish that grip onto rocks with suckers on their bellies. 

The facility exists for education, and they do three "feeding shows" a week throughout the year (more in high summer) where you can watch divers interact with the fish. The kiddies were loving it, waving like mad at us through the glass, their little mouths going "ooh" and "aah" and grinning as we waved back.  Before the dive I found watching the fish through the glass fascinating, as you see bits of them you'd never get a look at otherwise - the underneath of flatfish, for example, which just lie in the sand and pretend they're not there when divers are around.  I'd never seen one actually swim before; they're very graceful, undulating like rays.

Sadly, as the Aquarium is owned by the Council, there have inevitably been funding cuts.  They've had to reduce staff and some exhibits are getting rather tired and crumbly.  However they're looking to recruit staff for the summer holidays, so if you're a diver looking for a summer job there's an opening for you up on the Moray Firth.  No previous experience required, no expertise except that you have to be a BSAC Sports Diver or equivalent to dive in the tank.  What they need is folk with people skills, who can talk to the kids and their parents, help with the feeding and selling in the shop, and generally make themselves useful.  Please pass the information on if you know anyone appropriate!

Even if you don't, if you're anywhere near Banff/Peterhead/Nairn go and visit the Marine Aquarium - it's a great day out if you have any interest in sea creatures.  I learnt a lot: fish ID had never been my strong point, but I'm never going to mistake any of the fish I saw on Saturday.

Water babies

I wish our pool were as handsome as this...

Yesterday Montrose BSAC hosted a try-dive for a group of local schoolkids.  Forfar Academy's Year 5 school trip goes to Borneo every second year, for a week's survival skills followed by a week's diving (wish I'd been to a school like that...).  Last night 22 of the students came to try a dive before next year's trip.

A few were very scared of the idea of diving - one is apparently terrified of drowning - but they'd all gone right under the water by the end of their trial, even if not in the deep end of the pool.  The one who's terrified of drowning even went to the bottom of the deep end (3.6 metres) and came up beaming, saying it had been "great".  What an achievement!

22 kids divided by 4 instructors times ~10 minutes each takes a while.  Inevitably some of them had to wait quite a long time for their turn, which doesn't help if you're nervous, but there was none of the joshing that could have made the wait harder.  In fact, they were really well-behaved - quiet and helpful to us and each other.

It's good to be part of an event like that, helping people overcome fears that could have made the trip a nightmare for them instead of a lifetime opportunity.  I hope the memory of last night will serve when they come to do it for real in the open sea.  At least in Borneo they'll have warm water: the pool yesterday made several of them shiver as they slid or jumped into it.

And it'll be worth the nerves and the effort.  The wildlife at the bottom of the sea in Borneo is much prettier than that at the bottom of Montrose swimming pool.

Underwater adventure.

Continuing the scuba story:

On Sunday April 11th I had my second open-water dive.  Montrose Sub-Aqua Club has a boat-house at Catterline, near Stonehaven (roughly 20 miles south of Aberdeen), with several small islands and reefs close off-shore and not too deep, so it's perfect for novice divers.  Sunday was one of those gorgeous spring days, sun sparkling off the water, bright and clear and warm, and we were promised two dives, one before and one after lunch.

I did my first open-water dive three weeks ago, down to about 5 metres, and had a bit of trouble getting and staying down, so I'd added another 8 lbs of weight to the 24lbs I'd needed in the swimming pool.  One of the main challenges of diving is the sheer weight of the kit you have to wear: I'm whacked before I ever get in the water.  I'm assured it gets easier when you're used to it, and of course you don't feel the weight underwater, but on land - boy, oh boy!  On the plus side, people keep telling me I'm too light - music to my ears, as I'm no sylph.

So: second dive.  I was diving with Barrie who, like most instructors, is very used to the vagaries of beginners.  I had trouble getting down but eventually I made it to the sandy bottom.  We did a couple of technical exercises and then set off to swim a gully between the beach and a small island.  In good visibility we saw plenty of starfish and some dead-men's finger corals, and got down to about 10 metres.  But I was having trouble with my buoyancy and found myself rising to the surface much faster than the recommended 15 metres per minute.  Not dangerous from that depth, but uncontrolled and meaning Barrie also had to surface quickly to make sure I was OK.

We went back down - I sank much more easily, for some reason - and did another exercise before finding the anchor rope and going up it, at the recommended rate this time, to un-kit before clambering back into the boat.  Barrie's suggestion that I'd be "agile as a gazelle" was rather wide of the mark - more like "stranded whale" - but elegance was never my strong point, and at least I was in...

Back to the boathouse for lunch and to refill the air cylinders, then my third dive, again with Barrie (poor man).  I had even more trouble getting down, spending ages at the surface before I began to sink (why does that happen?  Dunno yet) and my trim wasn't right - I was listing to starboard the whole time.  Managed to hitch the kit around enough to get fairly level, and we set off to have a look round and get down to 15 metres.  Lots more to see down there - tiny brown and white crabs scuttling across the sand, dahlia anemones, sea urchins, and plenty more starfish and dead-men's fingers.  Barrie shone his torch hopefully into crevices to check for lobster, but no luck.

As we went deeper I began having problems keeping my feet down: as my head went down air was getting into my boots from the rest of my drysuit and I was just about inverted.  I did the forward roll that's supposed to solve the problem - one of the exercises we'd practised on the morning dive - but it didn't do the trick.  Tried again - no result.  I couldn't get my feet down.  To make things worse, with all that thrashing about my fins had come loose.  It turned out later the boots were half off my feet with the fins still attached, but it felt as though I was going to lose them completely, so I stopped kicking.  I could feel myself rising, fast, to the surface but once I got there things didn't improve because I put air into my drysuit instead of my buoyancy compensator (BC - air-fillable jacket like a life-preserver), so more air was going to my feet and it was difficult to hold my head out of the water.  By now I was panicking.  My regulator kept falling out of my mouth, so I was swallowing gouts of seawater.  I did remember to wave my arm over my head, the signal for "I'm in trouble", and I yelled for help, but I had no idea where the boat was or whether anyone could hear me.   

I don't know how long that went on - it felt like several minutes, but was probably much less - and then Barrie was filling my BC with air and someone was telling me to put my hand through something on the boat.  I was relieved of my kit and pushed and hauled into the boat, more like a stranded whale even than before lunch, and collapsed on the bottom-boards, where I stayed until we got back to the boathouse.

Everyone was very kind, and made it seem like an ordinary occurrence - maybe it is, and I shall see others in the same predicament over the next few weeks.  For their sakes I really hope not. 

Lessons learnt: I need more weight, preferably ankle weights, both to get down and to keep my feet down.  And I need to remember to fill my BC at the surface.  I've been mentally practising that.  Every time I picture myself floundering on the surface I think "now inflate BC, now inflate BC", so that it will become an automatic response.  Since the "action replay" is still showing regularly on my mental screen, the programming stands a strong chance of working.

So - many thanks to Barrie for saving my life, and I hope for his sake that someone else gets to take me down next time!  I did consider giving up and settling for snorkelling, but not for long.  Well, I've bought all the kit now, haven't I?  Shame to waste it, and a winter's training, for a minor setback.

P.S. Apparently it's quite normal to go through all that - everyone comes up feet first at least once in their diving career, I'm told.  I guess we all have to learn from our mistakes...
Diving again on Sunday :-)