Saturday 13 December 2008

Arctic Norway

Great trip to Arctic Norway with http://www.arctic-encounters.com/

Sadly no orca - due to lack of herring in fjords! Having been twice before and seen and dived with the orca on every day it was a big surprise! For some reason the herring have not entered the fjords and are still out in the open sea (& with them the orca!). It will be interesting to see if the herring do enter the fjords over the next few months.
Hosts at Arctic Encounters (Hugh & Pauline) were, however, great and could not have done more! Arctic diving - superb viz (>30m+) - wildlife seen included sea eagles & moose!
Underwater large anenomes, shoals of coalie, horse mussels, crabs, giant sunstars!
Northern lights (aurora) amazing! Cold plays havoc with autofocus on cameras (also seemed to upset my contents gauge which froze!) Photos c/o Hugh Breivik

Monday 1 December 2008

Farne Islands










Managed to get a few hours underwater off the Farne Islands, Northumberland on Saturday (29th Nov). At this time of year it is comparatively straight forward to get near to the seals underwater.


Despite poor weather earlier in the week it was a lovely day with bright sunshine although rather cold. The underwater viz was not ideal. Photos show a young male seal and how long the front flipper claws are on even a young seal.