As in other recent visits sea hares, sea lemons and grey sea slugs were numerous, in fact I think that I could stick my neck out and say locally abundant. The sea hares may be present in considerable numbers well beyond the pier, we found them on the adjacent rocks, sand and seaweed. Also under the pier are some juvenile and smaller nudibranch species which despite their bright colours are easily overlooked.  Each of the Facelina nudibranchs in the image above is about 1cm in length.

Some of the larger nudibranchs such as the sea lemon (Doris pseudoargus) use their colour and skin texture to emulate the sponges on which they feed allowing them to blend into the background. The nudibranch Geitodoris planata (formerly Discodoris planata) shown above also feeds on sponges and is big enough to see without a magnifying glass – that is if you don’t just swim past it. By combining its flat profile with a subdued colour pattern and disruptive texture it appears to be a static encrusting invertebrate. The deception is complete when the gill plume and horns are withdrawn into the body. Look carefully at the image above, both gills and horns are extended but the slug still looks like a lump of sponge.  

After just over an hour when frozen fingers had started to fumble the camera controls we gave up and left the water. Shortly afterwards a hot drink, winter sunshine and superb views across to the snow covered peaks on Arran delivered the “place to be ” ambience.

Now although the depth profile of sea lochs lends itself to shore diving this does not mean that you are always going to find exceptional marine life and stunning reef topography, most of this site falls very much into the average bracket. For me however it is the seabed moorings that act like a magnet much as they do for lots of other stuff particularly under the fishing boat where two spectacular sea anemone species can be found.

The anemones are not found below any of the other moorings nor do they appear as isolated specimens on the adjacent seabed. Of the two species the horseman anemone is the most numerous at this site and as the image above suggests the most colourful. With horseman anemones however it is not just colour that delivers visual impact it is size, they can extend to greater than 30 cm in diameter.

As indicated by its name the deeplet anemone is not regularly encountered in water as shallow as this. Again this is a fairly large anemone species reaching up to around 30 cm in diameter although the couple of individuals encountered here do not come particularly close to this maximum size.  Larger specimens are generally found in much deeper water. The seabed habitat in the immediate area is not quite right for either of the anemone species described and it is likely that they have been introduced as catch discards from the fishing boat.

The appeal of diving around moorings relates directly to human intervention where anything thrown overboard along with the mooring blocks, anchors and chains will often slew the habitat and introduce unexpected or unusual marine life. Obviously they are great places for underwater photography but care is required and consideration must be given to how and where you leave the water. The dangers of surfacing under or close to a manouvering vessel must be taken into account.

Another hour under Portencross pier and another card full of images to process but strangely no paddleworms this time, the egg capsules were everywhere but I didn’t see a single worm. Jim left the water with a smile on his face confirming our findings regarding the exceptionally high number of nudibranchs (the formal name for sea slugs) around the pier. Since then he has e-mailed to say that he recorded 12 different species during the dive. That is more species than he has ever observed at any other Scottish site at this time of year. 

Despite having dived here many times before the last two visits have been a bit of a surprise. Breeding activity combined with stunted winter seaweed growth have revealed some interesting marine life. The significance of the nudibranch species count is possibly more meaningful if you consider that somewhere around 10% of the total UK nudibranch species can be found under one very small pier on the approaches to the Clyde. 

Just north of the small village of Portencross on the west coast of Scotland a derelict pier extends a short distance into the Firth of Clyde.  The waters around the pier are shallow (typically 6m at high tide) and hence rarely visited by the mainstream diving community many of whom consider such depths to be “beneath them”. Their loss, I dive here frequently and over the years have encountered a great diversity of marine life thriving in and around the few cubic metres of sea space that the pier occupies. I intend to write more about what I have seen at this site in future posts but  this is all about what is going on there now.

Last Sunday Jack and I went along to the pier and did our usual, camera systems suspended by rope from the pier, jump in, retrieve cameras and check functionality, go and find stuff to photograph.  Did we find stuff to photograph? Oh yes, lots of stuff.  Huge numbers of sea hares were grazing on the rocks and boulders adjacent to the pier and to a lesser extent on the pier piles.  We do find sea hares in this area now and again but rarely in such numbers. I have observed similar sea hare gatherings on the south coast of England where I believe that this may be a regular occurrence.   Also present and covering most surfaces were huge numbers of paddleworms. This appeared to be  a spawning event with the worms entwined among themselves and their bright green egg masses. About a  centimetre in diameter the egg  masses or capsules are frequently seen washing around on the shoreline during spring and summer. The volume of paddleworms was of such an extent that they often became a photographic nuisance appearing as unwanted guests in the images of other subjects.

Moving up from the sea bed to check out life on the pier piles it became apparent that there was a lot more going on. Some of it we had expected but a lot of it came as a surprise particularly the aggregations of sea lemons (a sea slug which feeds on sponges) that had gathered all over the pier piles. More sea slugs and other species followed, detection simplified by the minimal winter seaweed coverage. After nearly an hour in cold water numbed fingers fumbled around camera controls. We left the sea realising that nature had once again ambushed us with the unexpected.

Descending towards an anemone encrusted submarine cable in Loch Fyne.

I have just introduced aspects of an activity from which I derive great satisfaction and I have done so in an relatively flippant manner.  Consider my words carefully however there is method inherent in all that I have said. For a start I do live on the west coast of Scotland and at least where the Atlantic coast of Europe is concerned this is an excellent place for an underwater photographer to be based. We have so many sheltered water options in our sea lochs that diving goes on year round regardless of weather conditions. The water doesn’t even get too cold, winter delivers around 6°C (43°F) at worst. Regarding buddies I would certainly not put my regular underwater photographer companion Jack in a life threatening position, he is simply irreplaceable.

Local diving clubs and schools in our part of the world are experts in the field of early starts. They often drive for miles in darkness at some hideous hour of the morning in their quest to be the first arrivals on a distant shoreline. Jack and I usually head for Loch Fyne and we do so in the hours of daylight. After a 20 minute ferry crossing followed by a 20 minute drive we arrive at the village of Strachur half way down the south east shore of the loch. Here you will find us in the comfort of the Bay Cottage Tea Room drinking coffee and eating some of the finest cheese scones in Scotland as we contemplate the days diving. Eventually we will head off following the road down the lochside to our chosen dive site, by this time we know exactly where we are going and what we hope to achieve.

Do we ever manage to get into the water? Are some of our subjects likely to end up in the pot when their modelling careers are over? The truth might follow in part 2.