Issue 25 May 2010 | |
Off-Gassing... | |
(Web Version) |
Hope everyone has had a good Easter – now is the
time to get yourselves dive fit and jump in the water (yes, do zip up
first). The water is finally
warming up and trips to all points of the British Isles have begun.
Check out the board at the pub for further organised events, and
those slightly less formal days out.
Coming up this month is:-
The Clay
Pigeon shooting challenge – the challenge being to hit one of the
critters and not a fellow member;
The second boat handling course – putting yet more
of our non-alcoholic, sedate members in charge of a rubber ring with a
motor on the back of it;
A day at
the Menai Straits - you know all the jokes about that one;
A week in
Mull at the end of the month.
In between are the usual dives at Dosthill and
Stoney, the former being quite busy now due to the increase in Stoney
Cove’s prices (£17 for non-members) and the poor visibility that Stoney
is experiencing again –its reported to be extremely green and down to a
metre viz again. |
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BSAC Fees
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Have you got any ideas about what trips you would like to go on? What about courses that you would like to take part in? Editor’s Corner Thank you to everyone for their contributions and comments and if you have anything that you would like add to the newsletter, let us know by 20th May so it can be included in the next issue. |
Penang Curry - A little of what you fancy does you good. |
Serves 4 if served with another
dish.
As with most curries, the cook’s instincts come in
to play when making this dish.
The editors take no responsibility for the final result!
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Lundy Island |
Below the surface there is some magnificent scenery and a huge variety
of marine life,
some of which is unique to the British Isles. For this reason the waters
around Lundy are designated as a STATUTORY MARINE RESERVE.
The diving season on Lundy is from the end of April to the end of
September.
The tides of the Bristol Channel are fierce but the island lies N-S in a
tidal stream that is mostly E-W, so there is always some part of the
island with slack water. Dive the west side on the ebb and the east side
on the flood.
There are many types of fish including basking sharks in the summer
months and the unique population of red banded fish (a metre long,
shaped like an eel with a red band and a single dorsal fin the whole
length of their body - they live in burrows in the mud). Crabs, lobsters
and crayfish are still common but their populations have been affected
by commercial fishing. There are huge numbers of sea urchins and
starfish and the population of jewel anemones rarely fails to amaze the
visiting diver. Common and
lesser octopus are also regularly seen.
Shipwrecks
Although Lundy has probably more than its fair share of shipwrecks, it
is nowhere near what it could have been, considering how many ships have
passed this way in the last two centuries alone. It is estimated that in
its heyday, almost a million ships passed the island every year. Even
so, in 1786, the merchants of Bristol were so concerned at the losses
suffered around the island that they offered to build and maintain a
light house at their own expense. There are 137shipwrecks, one of the most famous being the battleship
Montagu, which lies close into the South West tip of the island.
On the afternoon of
29 May 1906 the almost new battleship anchored off Lundy during a Fleet
exercise. Her job was to communicate with the Isles of Scilly
using
the recently installed wireless telegraphic signaling apparatus. This
equipment was the cutting edge of technology at the time and the
Admiralty was expecting great things from it. However the distance to
the Scilly Isles was too great, and in normal circumstances the Montagu
would have steamed closer to the Islands and continued her trials.
Unfortunately she was now enveloped in a thick fog and anchored as she
was, right in the main shipping lane there was a real risk of another
ship colliding with her. In the end it was decided to move closer to
Lundy. As the great ship got under way soundings were taken, and as the
Montagu crept closer towards the coast a strict lookout was kept. At
about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the depth was given as seventeen
fathoms and the navigating officers was just congratulating himself in
placing the ship safely four miles off Lundy when there was a great
crash and grinding of metal, and the Montagu shuddered to a halt.
Unknown to all on board, they had just run aground on the Shutter Rock
at the south western corner of Lundy Island. The ship’s massive engines
were put hard astern ripping off her propellers, but the Montagu was
held fast and started to leak badly.
Much of her was salvaged, including
most of the armour plating, guns and a vast amount of copper and brass.
However, there are still huge sections of armour plate, parts of the gun
turrets and 12in diameter shells. |
Creature of the Month - Zebra shark |
Phylum: Vertebates (Chordata)
The
zebra shark
is also known as
a leopard shark in Southeast Asia. The zebra shark has a cylindrical
body with prominent ridges on the sides and 5 gill slits (slits 4 and 5
overlap). The tail lacks a ventral lobe and it is as long as the body.
This shark has a broad head, small barbels, and a transverse mouth
located in front of the eyes. Its spiracles
are as large as its eyes. The spineless dorsal fins are back to back.
The anterior dorsal fin is much larger than the posterior dorsal fin.
The first dorsal fin appears above the bases of pelvic fins, the second
dorsal fin is about as large as the anal fin. The body is gray-brown
with dark spots in adults. Juveniles are darker with light stripes and
spots. Maximum size is about 3.5 m, average size between 2.5-3 m
Habitat
The zebra shark,
Stegostoma fasicatum, is found in the Indo-Western Pacific:
South Africa to Red Sea and Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, China, Japan, Australia, New
Caledonia, Palau. Lives over the continental and insular shelves. Very
common around coral reefs, often on sandy bottoms, but little is known
about its biology. It is known that this species props up its pectorals
in the sand and faces the current with open mouth. Such behavior and its
inactivity during the day points towards a more sluggish life style and
indicates that it is probably a nocturnal hunter. Recorded to have
entered freshwater.
Life style
Feeds primarily on snails and other molluscs, but also on crabs, shrimps,
and small bony fishes.
The zebra shark is an egg layer (oviparous). Egg cases are
large (17 cm long, 8 cm wide, 5 cm thick). Unknown if the female lays
more than one egg at a time, but it is most likely. Hatch size between
20-36 cm. Males reach sexual maturity between about 1.5-1.8 m, females
around 1.7 m.
Conservation
status
Harmless. This species is regularly taken in inshore
fisheries and a decline is likely (no data) if not in progress. Utilized
fresh and dried-salted for human consumption and also for fishmeal;
livers processed for vitamins; fins cut off for the oriental shark-fin
trade.
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