Exploring the swim-through tunnels of Cuas Gorm, beneath Puffin Island, reveals all kinds of critters that prefer the dark, or those simply taking refuge until nightfall. Normally shy and skittish, this lobster seemed perfectly at home as my bright lights pierced its shadowy den. I managed to bring my lens within a few centimetres of […]
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A playful greeting from a grey seal welcomed us as we arrived at our Little Skellig dive site, an experience that stood in sharp contrast to the grim events of 1809, when the full-rigged ship Lady Nelson was wrecked here. Of her crew, only two survived while twenty-five souls were lost. During our dive we […]
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It was just John and me today, the last dive of an unforgettable Portmagee weekend. With the ocean calm and flat, we decided to head across to Puffin Island. On the western side of Puffin Island lies a dramatic fissure, almost splitting the island in two. Here, 50-meter cliffs of 350-million-year-old red sandstone plunge vertically […]
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I still find myself thinking I’m back in South Australia whenever I come across the European spiny lobster (Palinurus elephas), which looks almost identical to the southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii). Here in Ireland, this beautiful creature is mostly ignored by the fishing industry in favour of the much sought-after European lobster (Homarus gammarus). From […]
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We were diving very deep to avoid the surge above but even here below 30m we were tossed back and forth making photography tricky. While capturing this edible sea urchin I waited for the leaf like red algae to be pushed down flat by the surge. It never was, I think it had gotten impaled […]
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