UK Diving » Norfolk Autumn 08

As Autumn arrives there's definite feeling of diving on borrowed time with each extra visit to Norfolk. This omnibus gallery collects dives from September and October, these include the wildlife which was on parade for those on our Norwich Seasearch course and first outings for the Seasearch boat 'Dangermouse'. We fitted in some chalk gully diving from the boat but didn't get to do them photo justice. One days diving was disrupted by the discovery of a net fouled on the Vera, it took an hour to free the 200 crabs and half dozen lobsters which were snared.

September Vera The water was marvellously clear around the Vera for this visit, allowing some nice pictures until we had to break off and recover some carelessly fouled netting. See the separate gallery for that.

Crab Rescue Our dive on the Vera was interrupted by the discovery of a discarded net. Cut free rather than recovered by the owner the bait fish left in it had snared over 200 animals. These pictures have been used by Seasearch and the MCS to demonstrate the dangers of ghost fishing. The surface pictures were taken by William Hutchins.

Course Rosalie For our Observer course heroes here's a spot check on what was on show on the Rosalie. We had to shore dive as the boat we booked from Sea Palling cried off at the last minute! Most of the usual suspects were present with bonus a late showing of a Short spined sea scorpion.

Course Vera For our Observer course heroes here's a spot check on what was on show on the Vera. Shore diving again as the boat we booked cried off at the last minute! Most of the usual suspects were present along with signs of major sediment movement around the wreck.

September Rosalie A sudden late rush of Crystal sea slugs brightened our trip around this excellent wreck. There's a Long spined sea scorpion in here too, you may want to compare it with the short spined version in the Observer course gallery.

Sept survey Rosalie Dawn took our GPS buoy for a drag around the Rosalie and I recorded the event. We'll eventually produce a virtual wreck tour but in the meantime I think this shows some features more clearly than I've seen them before - including the bow and a third, small boiler.

On board Dangermouse After a lot of soul searching we decided we should get a small boat to make some more inshore surveying possible. We only had time for a couple of trips late in the season but were able to survey 5 sites and found some much better chalk than we'd seen during our past club dives. It was great fun, especially as the boat can do about 30 knots, but we know we need to upgrade for 2009 so we can take more divers out. I was driving so pictures are few and far between.

Oct Macro Vera The conditions weren't great in October and after a very short photo session we found another net. This one was intentionally placed very close to the wreck and still apparently in use. I swam the full length (50-75m) of the net to confirm that there was no viable excuse to recover it and had to be content with reporting it to the Coastguard.

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