The Marine Environment and what it means to me.

‘Out of sight, out of mind’ always used to be the way of conservation with marine life in the world. However, with the rise of interest in Scuba Diving promoted by numerous TV programmes and issues of by-catch waste highlighted by Hugh Fernley Whittingstall’s ‘Great British Fish Fight’, the British public want to know more about marine matters.

But really it’s down to you. For me, I took an interest in scuba diving back in 1990 and found as I practised the skills and learned the theory I became more and more interested in the living experience of the marine life.

My first dives were in a cold lake in Leicester, in November, in an 8 mm wetsuit. It was so cold that it felt as if my forehead had been hit with a bar of cold iron as I jumped into the water. That was the only part of me that was not covered by the wetsuit, gloves, hood, boots or equipment! However, I really enjoyed that first dive. I saw perch and roach swimming free, and there I was, swimming free with them.

I started my sea dives at Chesil Beach and experienced the difficulties of getting in and out of the sea with all the gear on. Tanks, weight belt of 24 lbs, buoyancy jacket, etc., while being encased within my new pride and joy, a dry suit! This meant I didn’t need to get so cold and wet and could enjoy the dives more, with the exception of walking down the loose pebble slope to the sea – and the much more difficult climb out again.

In the sea, even around the English coast with visibility of not much more than 8 metres, there are things to see, wonderful things, things I had never seen before, not even on those TV programmes. Out came the reference books after the dive and a quick word with other divers helped with their identification.


Along with my scuba diving and interest in the underwater life, I took up underwater photography and a whole new world opened up to me. I took a couple of courses on Marine Identification and Ecology with the Marine Conservation Society and at last I could take photos and identify what I was seeing. Time passed and I continued diving. I now have almost 1000 dives under my belt and have discovered that warm dives into foreign seas with Whale Sharks and Manta Rays drive my interest for the large things, while seahorses and nudibranchs (sea slugs) hold my interest in the smaller things.

I still remember my roots in UK diving and there are many colourful nudibranchs and two species of seahorse to be seen not far from here. With the setting up of the Marine Conservation Zones, there is a growing interest in conservation. I understand the needs of a fishing fleet which has traditionally dredged for scallops in the Lyme Bay area, and I hope a balance can be struck between the fishing fleet and the need to maintain existing natural habitats over sand, mud and gravel. If we can keep some of these areas free of fishing, trawling and dredging, we can save some of our own more delicate life forms for the future.

The best way to see and experience this is to do it. Scuba diving is fun and challenging, both here and abroad. I learnt with BS-AC, within a club environment, which may have taken longer than a holiday course, but I learnt much, much more along the way.

British Seahorse (drawn by John Ramsay)