2017/06/10 Summer Isles Feather Stars Reproducing
This was our second survey carried out with the support of Seasearch divers in 2017. There were two days diving with four different sites visited. The second site visited was Stac Mhic Aonghais which is an exposed skerry just over 1Km southwest of Tanera Beg. The divers found a rocky reef with gullies and occasional boulders dropping down to a gently sloping seabed at 18 metres. The sand on the gentle slope contained maerl fragments which could be the remnants of a historical maerl bed or evidence of a live maerl bed near bye. Sgeir nam Mult was the fourth site visited, a small skerry about 1Km west of Eilean Dubh. The slope levelled out at 20 metres with a level seabed of maerl sand, once again a sign of a historical or nearby live maerl bed. Found during this survey and sent by Neil MacInnes were these photos of feather stars producing offspring. As far as we know this hasn’t been filmed in Wester Ross before and was fascinating for us to see, given feather stars are pretty abundant. Andy Jackson in 2016 had filmed a feather star swimming and dancing in the current. A beautiful sight. Read the Seasearch report here.
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