SEASEARCH UIG
APR
2026
Just to note that during this week, we had some really awful weather come through. Luckily, we did manage to dive most days, but these were often dictated by the prevailing wind. Stil, despite this, we managed to survey the Eelgrass beds between the Bhaltos Peninsular and Siaram, hunt in the shallows around the entrance to Little Loch Roag – The Narrows, and near Eilean Teinish.
Eelgrass surveying
With the help of Photographer Ralph Tonge (www.ralphtonge.co.uk), and his drone, we continued to map the Eelgrass beds in Kyles Pabay, specifically the area southwest of Shiaram Mór. This was one of the calmest, sunniest days of the week, as can be seen by the stunning aerial shots from Ralph. Surveying is done by towing a surface marker buoy fitted with a GPS tracker around each bed, then plotting the tracks onto the chart.
APR
2026
The Narrows
With a southerly wind, diving was confined to the southern (lee) shore of the loch. We spent some time exploring the area to the northwest of Garbh Eilean in the mouth of the narrows. The chart shows a flooding and ebbing flow of 1kn, but up against the wall, and by diving on the slack, this wasn’t felt. What we did find was that there were a lot of Burrowing Anemones (Ceryanthus lloydii), proud of the sediment, as well as a Paddleworm (Pyllodocida sp.).
APR
2026
Eilean Teinish
Some more dives determined by the weather. This was supposed to have been Maerl Bed Survey Day, but the wind had other ideas. These were shallow dives in the vicinity of Eilean Teinish and Traigh Teinish in the Sound of Vuia.
JULY
2025
Mealasta Island and Griminish
Another week of exploring the seas around Uig. Again we had a group of divers from around Scotland joining in the fun. Some diving was carried out from Mealasta, incorporating two transects in the bay north of the deserted village of Griminish. These were a North / South and an East / West, looking at the habitats and life close to shore. Both transects took in the very shallow waters where the rocks form a small cliff into the sea. The bedrock is covered in life, with Kelp being a predominant feature, which then harbours a variety of other species hiding in, under or on the Kelp steps and fronds. The seabed then slopes away into deeper water (8m at the centre and end of the transects). Away from the bedrock, the seabed is an undulating sandy expanse with broken shells and small gravel. Hidden in this, nearer the shallower water are Sand Eels, buried in the sand, just waiting to explode out and away. These small fish defied being photographed, but we will return next year for another attempt.
JULY
2025
Bhaltos Peninsular and Outlying Islands
Further north, we explored the coast of the Bhaltos Peninsular, and out-lying islands of Pabaigh, Siaram, Vacsay and the waters around Via Mòr.
These waters provide us with a wealth of marine life, from different species of crabs,. Starfish, anemones and seaweeds. As with the sea around Mealasta, the bedrock forms a wall down onto a sandy bottom. These walls are often fissured with the openings providing homes to Sea Cucumbers, Lobsters, Cup Corals, and small fish: one-spot and Leopard Spotted Gobies, and small wrasse.
One of the dives we carried out in this area was named ‘Fishing Rod Rock’ as a fishing rod had been reported lost in this area. Although we didn’t find said fishing rod, we did take a large number of photos on a most spectacular reef. This is one dive that we will be doing again!
