2017/04/21 Tanera Mor New Anemone and Rare Sea Slug
During 2017 three separate diving surveys were carried out by Sea Change Wester Ross in collaboration with SeaSearch divers from the Inverness Sub Aqua Club (ISAC) and SeaSearch divers from the Ipswich area. We were also joined by Bill the chairman of Wester Ross Area Salmon Board. There were three new fish farm proposals at the time, and so our surveys focused on areas where these salmon farms were proposed including the east side of Tanera Mor and further around the side of Tanera. Unfortunately, poor weather, including snow, restricted the diving to one day in April however we managed to survey six different sites.
To the southeast of Tanera Mor, intricate structures above the seabed built by sandmason worms suggested the seabed was beginning to recover from historic dredging incidents. The area between Eilean Beag and Eilean Mor is shallower.
In the Tanera Bay known as the cabbage patch we found a large number of the anemone Anthopleura ballii. This species was first videoed by Andy in 2016 and they looked alien and extraordinary close to the salmon farm in the bay. George Brown photographed these again in 2017. In the very shallow tidal channel between Eilean Mor and Tanera Mor we found more Anthopleura ballii as well as a rare sea slug Placida dendritica. With this detail in George’s photos we could make a positive identification - these anemones were more at home off the coast of France and in the Mediterranean. The southernmost siting of this species was off the NW of Ireland. Our sighting represents an extension of over 200 miles in the known range of the species. This anemone was not previously reported in the area.
For more visit our archive.
