Louis Shied

Partly because of the expectation of similar conditions to Budleigh Thursday, no sea dives were planned as far as I could tell. However Kevin on Friday had contacted the management of a certain reservoir to carry out a risk assessment and preliminary dive (he had applied formally and had permission) but they refused at the last minute saying they were busy. I had arrived there already - wasting fuel in the middle of the shortage - and the place was almost deserted.

We had a quick rethink and Kevin, Rob C, and myself met at Thurlestone. The vis was 5m, and conditions perfect. We swam around the rocks there in about 5-10m. We saw lots of life including cuttlefish (4x), dogfish, a shoal of bass, a monster spider crab, and off the rocks found a spot where a large number of netted dog whelks were grazing on worms, and close by, in a layer of organic matter, we found handfuls of marine isopods (underwater woodlice). Lots of other fish, crabs and the usual sea-squirts, sponges and so on. All was wonderful and even the algae fantastic and colourful; deep reds and yellows, and irridescent green, with lots of blue and red tinged snakelocks anemone amongst it all.