A slide show was organized this year by Phil Kinsman, illustrating the
varied activities that the club gets up to on its trips away. There has
been a general change around in the committee members, which now reads
as follows:
Branch Officers
Aggy Bellamy- Chair
Paul Waddell - Treasurer
Al Noakes - D.O.
Kate Starling - Secretary
General Committee members
Phillipa Cresswell
Phil Kinsman
Stacey Carless
Lily Beresford
Tim Beech
Clive Wollaston
The committee would like to thank Sue Mace, Chris Bennett and John
Searle for their support and services on the committee and remind them
that it’s not that easy to escape, no matter how far away they travel!
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For those of you unable to attend the Dinner Dance, (really good excuses
for failing to turn up could be published in the next newsletter,
otherwise it’s beer fines) or the AGM, here is a summary of awards given
and what your new committee will look like – no photos, it’s just not
pretty.
New sports divers are:
Ashley Munday
Paul Lathbury
Stacey Carless
Adrian Meek
Andy Smith
Charles Swannie
The Beresford Award, given by the committee, went to Chris Bennett.
Trainee of the Year went to Stacey Carless
DO’s Award went to Paul Lathbury
Members Member went to Chris Bennett
Dive Monster was won by Paul Lathbury
The Brass Ass went to Sue Astle – whose accident with a bikini bottom
made this a very apt award.
A good time was had by all, but obviously the beer enthusiasts were
holding back as there was still some left at the end of the night (beer,
that is). Is this the worrying trend of a keep fit drive, or the after
affects of swine flu?
Thanks to Lil as always for organizing the event, and presenting the
Beresford Bowl. Thank you as well to everyone who supports this event
year in and year out, and those new members who came along. It is
important to the committee and the club that we get together to
celebrate being members of one of the best clubs in the country, which
is after all, down to the busy workings behind the scenes and the
members themselves. |
50 19.64N 03 15.20W
It’s been 5 years since the Scylla was sunk off Plymouth, becoming
Europe’s first artificial reef. This is a brief update about how
successful it has been, but first, the history.
Her pennant number was F71. She was launched from Devonport Dockyard on
8 August, 1968, 2500 tons of broad-beam Leander-class frigate and the
the fourth warship to be christened HMS Scylla since 1809.
On 14 February 1970 she joined the Western Fleet in the Med with her 263
crew, reaching her top speed of 28 knots from her 30,000hp
geared-turbine engines in trials near Gibraltar. She carried Seacat
missiles, a Lynx helicopter and 4.5in guns.
In 1971 she joined the Far East Fleet in Australia, Japan, Singapore and
Hong Kong and then the Beria Patrol, returning to Plymouth in February
1972. In January 1973 she collided with the Torpoint-Devonport ferry in
fog. No one was injured but her captain was court-martialled and found
negligent.
Playing
bumper cars with Icelandic fisheries vessels in the Cod War of
1972-1976, Scylla earned a reputation as the toughest RN fishery
protection warship. In June 1973 she was accused of helping two British
trawlers to ram the Icelandic gunboat Arhakur. Scylla claimed merely to
have stood by. Six days later, however, she did take positive action
after being rammed by the gunboat Aegir. She rammed much harder back and
the gunboat limped away.
Scylla later seemed to be everywhere - entertaining US President Jimmy
Carter aboard off the Leeward Islands, in the Channel to scatter the
ashes of Cruel Sea author Nicholas Montserrat and, in 1980, helping the
victims of Hurricane Allen in the Cayman islands. In 1986 she was on
Gulf Patrol duty and in 1992 was given the freedom of Aberdeen.
December 1993 saw Scylla paid off. And on 27 March 2004, the 372ft
frigate, with a beam of 43ft and drawing 19ft, was 'placed' on the
seabed in 21m in Whitsand Bay - not far from Devonport.
Marine scientists believe the scuttled former Royal Navy frigate is now
home to about 260 sea species, surpassing expectations both in terms of
visitors and in colonisation. While Scylla has attracted many of the
typical sea creatures associated with a shipwreck, such as conger eels,
whiting, mussels and barnacles, queen scallops, cuttlefish and scorpion
fish, there has also been some other visitors, including a nationally
rare sea slug and pink sea fans, which colonised in August 2007. It
appears that all round, the wreck has become a great success.
It is believed that it has generated up to £30million in its first five
years, which has created a massive boost to Plymouth’s economy. Numerous
business leaders in the South West region doubted the
National Marine Aquarium-led project, believing it would fail, but
figures show about 42,000 people have visited the wreck on 7,000 dive
boats since its spectacular sinking on March 27, 2004.
The National Marine Aquarium has been monitoring and logging the wreck
for the last five years and will continue to do so for a further five. |
The
vampire squid, known to scientists as Vampyroteuthis infernalis, looks
like something that swam out of a late-night science fiction movie. But
in spite of its monstrous name, it is a small creature, growing to only
about six inched in length. The vampire squid is an ancient species and
is a phylogenic relict, meaning that is the only surviving member of the
order Vampyromorphida. It is a unique member of the cephalopod family in
that it shares similarities with both squid and octopuses. In fact, it
was originally and mistakenly identified as an octopus by researchers in
1903.
The vampire squid has large fins at the top of its body that resemble
ears. These fins serve as its primary means of propulsion as it
literally flies through the water by flapping these fins. As with other
squid, it can also use jet propulsion to move by expelling water through
a specialized siphon jet located just under its mantle. The vampire
squid has a very gelatinous form, resembling a jellyfish more than the
common squid. It can swim surprisingly fast for a gelatinous animal,
reaching speeds of over two body lengths per second. It also has the
largest eyes relative to its body size of any animal. Though it is
relatively small, growing to a length of only about six inches, it has
globular eyeballs about the size of those of a large dog. These large
eyes can appear red or blue in colour, depending on the light. The
vampire squid's eight arms are connected with a webbing of skin, which
makes it look more like an octopus than a squid. When threatened, the
squid can draw its arms up over itself and form a defensive web that
covers its body. Each of the eight arms is lined with a single row of
suction cups and rows of soft, fleshy spines known as cirri. It is these
spines, along with the cape-like webbing and red eyes that give the
vampire squid its unusual name. Located inside the vampire quid's webbed
arms can be found a pair of retractable sensory filaments. These
filaments are similar to the two long tentacles found on other squid
species. Also located within the webbing are two powerful beak-like
jaws. These jaws are as white as ivory and are strong enough to crush
the shells of crustaceans. The squid's colour ranges from jet black to
pale red.
The vampire squid's body is covered with light-producing organs called
photophores. This gives the squid the unique ability to "turn itself on
or off" at will through a chemical process known as bioluminescence.
When the photophores are off, the squid is completely invisible in the
dark waters where it lives. The squid has incredible control over these
light organs. It has the ability to modulate the size and intensity of
the photophores to create complex patterns that can be used to disorient
predators and attract prey. The photophores are larger and more complex
at the tips of the arms and the base of its two fins. Unlike most other
squid, it does not have the ability to change its colour. This ability
would be useless in the dark environments in which it lives. The squid's
light show is probably its main form of defence, since it lacks the ink
sack which is present in other squid species. It can, however, eject a
thick cloud of glowing, bioluminescent mucus from the tips of its arms
when threatened.
Not much is known about the feeding habits of the vampire squid. Its
diet is believed to consist of prawns, copepods, cnidarians, and other
small invertebrates. The beaks of vampire squid have been found in the
stomachs of seals, whales, and fishes, indicating that it is a favourite
prey item for many deep-diving species. The squid has an extremely low
metabolic rate, indicating that it can go for long periods of time
without feeding. This is an important adaptation seen in many deep sea
species since food can be hard to find at these extreme depths.
As with most deep water creatures, very little is known about the
reproductive habits of the vampire squid. We do know that the eggs of
the squid are small and opaque, reaching a size of about eight
millimetres. They are thought to reproduce slowly by laying a relatively
small number of eggs. The distribution of eggs has been found to be
similar throughout the year, indicating that there may be no particular
breeding season. Once the eggs hatch, the young hatchlings will drift
with the water. They resemble miniature versions of the adults except
that they lack the webbing between the arms and their eyes are much
smaller. As they develop, the young vampire squid undergo what has been
described as a double metamorphosis. At early stages of development, the
young squid have a single pair of fins located near the eyes. At a later
stage, this pair of fins gradually disappears as a new pair develops. As
the animal reached maturity, these fins are resized and repositioned to
maximize swimming efficiency.
Vampire squid are found throughout the deep oceans of the world in most
tropical and temperate regions at depths of between 300 feet (about 90
meters) and 3,000 feet (over 900 meters). They live in the oxygen
minimum layer of the ocean where virtually no light penetrates. They
seem to prefer a temperature between 35 and 43 degrees Fahrenheit
(between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius).
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