With high tides and strong gales Eastbourne marina’s outer seawall breakwaters have been tested.

As the photo I took yesterday below shows, the waves were having a great time hitting the breakwaters…

Here’s a photo of a couple of them:

The Sea Squirt is a semi-transparent tube-like critter, averaging the size of an adult index finger.

The photo is in macro mode so you can just about see the close-up details of the sea squirt, and you’ll notice some colouration around the opening at the top of the body.

This helps identify it as a yellow ringed sea squirt (ciona intestinalis).

Sea squirts have a sac-like body with two siphons (one to inhale and the other to exhale) through which they siphon water from which they extract nutrients.

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For more posts with photos of life in the marina, click here…

Other Posts from this Dive

This post was written following a Dive in North Harbour on 14th April 2007, for other posts relating to this dive, including more photos, please checkout the following:

• Focus on Jellyfish in Eastbourne Marina
• Focus on Starfish in Sovereign Harbour

The photo below shows one of around 30 starfish that I swam over during my dive:

The photo shows the commonest of the starfish I encountered, and this one was one of the largest at about 20cms across.

You’ll also notice (if you squint a little) that there are quite a few shellfish living nearby.

Related Articles

For more posts with photos of life in the marina, click here…

Other Posts from this Dive

This post was written following a Dive in North Harbour on 14th April 2007, for other posts relating to this dive, including more photos, please checkout the following:

• Focus on Jellyfish in Eastbourne Marina

The club’s efforts over the past four years were rewarded by winning the newly created ‘Environment’ award for helping to clear up one of their dive sites, in and around North Harbour of Sovereign Marina.

Read on for more photos of the event, and also last year’s clean-up…

The Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) is the world’s leading training organisation for scuba diving and they take environmental resposibility and marine protection very seriously.

Planet Divers take this on board and participate in PADI’s annual Project Aware exercise to clean-up dive sites and increase the awareness of pollution and its affects on the local environment to the general public.

Last year the event in North Harbour coincided with the Charity Dragon Boat races, and the Club’s marquee was swamped with celebrities involved in the races, as well as local people who were happy to help out.

Each year, Planet Divers’ Project Aware event has got bigger and bigger, and has received more support from local businesses and residents.

Although the majority of Planet Divers’ members are involved in Project Aware to some extent, Claire Pooley has taken on the role of Project Leader for these activities and has been the driving force behind getting local businesses to contribute something to the event.

Watch this blog for details of further clean-ups, both in the marina and on the local beaches.

Jon Martin

Thought I’d start with something you can see without having to get wet :-)

This time of the year, all areas of Sovereign Harbour are awash with jellyfish like the ones in the picture below:

Read on to hear what it’s like to dive with them…

As you can see from the photo, the visibility in the marina was quite good (for the marina at least). You can just about see my dive buddy Chris in the background; he’s about 5-feet away.

The jellyfish varied in size from tiny ones about the size of a 50p piece, to the largest which were around the diameter of a CD.

What about the sting I hear you ask…

Well fortunately, although they do sting, it isn’t a very powerful one. With the protection of my scuba gear (dry suit, gloves and hood), the only exposed part of my body is my face, and after a 50-minute dive, my cheeks tingled a little, something like mild stinging nettles.

Related Articles

For more posts with photos of life in the marina, click here…

Did you know that it contains, amongst other things, some seahorses…
…

Local boat fisherman Martin Wiltshire revealed at a recent meeting of Planet Divers scuba club, that he’s been capturing a number of seahorses in his nets whilst fishing off of Eastbourne.

Amazingly this hasn’t been an isolated incident, and often there are more than one.

Here’s a photo of two seahorses recently captured:

Fortunately for the unfortunate seahorses, Martin is an avid diver and keeps all seahorses on board until he can return to Sovereign Harbour, where he can release them in the calm waters of the marina.

To date  he has released around ten seahorses of a variety of sizes, and the hopes are that they can develop into a breeding colony.

I have some more photos which I will add once I’ve setup a photo gallery feature that I’m currently investigating. 

Let me know what you think,

Wishing you health, success and happiness in everything you do,

Jon