2018/09/22-29 The Ring of Bright Seaweed

In September 2018 we carried out a weeklong survey with Seasearch to continue to document the Summer Isles habitats.

This week was the start of a study focused on the biodiversity in the Summer Isles which was the idea of Owen Paisley, the Seasearch West coordinator. The plan was to compare the biodiversity records from dive surveys done in August 1981 by the Underwater Conservation Society (UCS) with dive surveys done in 2018 and 2019 at the same locations. The UCS evolved into Seasearch, and these UCS divers had supported the Frances Dipper’s 1981 survey called ‘Sublittoral Survey of Habitats and Species Around the Summer Isles: Ross and Cromarty’. We had 8-9 divers with a target of 40 sites to compare. We soon realised that the 1981 team had more scientists with more identification skills, and the exact locations were not documented precisely enough to make a really accurate site specific biodiversity comparison. However, it was still a very valuable process to revisit locations as a guide to areas which were biodiverse in the past.

Owen Paisley the Seasearch West Coordinator took over the management of the science part of the surveys with the support of Lewis Press with Frank Melvin as the key underwater cameraman.

Naturally many of the previously visited locations in the 40 sites visited in 1981 were maerl beds.

Frank Melvin’s footage from the September 2018 survey can be found here and viewed using the password ‘Summer’.