Diving off the land's end

The tip of Cornwall is a pretty unique place. An enormous lump of lava congealed under the earth 300 million years ago to make the incredible granite cliffs, islands and underwater pinacles that bear the brunt of the North Atlantic storms. The waters around Land's End are truly oceanic, with the average fetch (distance a wave travels) of around 5000 miles in any direction to the West. Below the waves at least 5 currents meet as the English Channel and the Irish Sea mix with Atlantic waters. I know this area well after many summers spent here as a child, surfing the Atlantic swell at Sennen Beach and snorkelling around when the sea was behaving. However even after being down there many times since getting my diving certificate, I've never dived off the Land's End. Last week I went down to St. Just with the Oxford University Underwater Exploration Group (OUEEG), on their summer expedition to see what lay in those tumultuous waters.

RMS Mulheim wrecked in 2003

The first day we were expecting a strong South-Westerly of around 20 knots and Tom (the most experienced seaman in our crew) suggested we went to Longships Lighthouse, perched on a narrow underwater ridge 3 miles off the Land's End's final point. This ridge has regularly claimed victims that pass through this busy shipping route over the years, wrecking numerous vessels with its confusing currents and fierce exposure to the Atlantic swell. We slipped the boat in Sennen Cove in the morning calm heading out to sea at the slack of a neap (weakest) tide to give ourselves the best chance of doing the dive. We drove into the lee for the rocks that peak just above the water to assess the conditions, which had already started making a significant chop in the strengthening winds. In the end Farah and I decided we felt brave enough to try it and after a bit of bobbing on the surface, we found that the water on the landward side of the ridge was calm and crystal clear, by British standards (12m+ visibility). Luxuriant kelp forest grew down the steep walls with gorgeous jewel anemones carpeting the gullies and overhangs carved out of solid granite, shaped by thousand storms. On the drive back into Sennen Olivia and Tom did a dive on some similar habitats off the Cowloes and doing some of the practical sessions for Olivia's Sport's Diver qualification, which she completed during the course of the week (well done Olivia!).

The next two days the wind galed from the South preventing us from logging any successful dives. One day we did try to get out and find a spot north of St. Ives where a steam train had been wrecked. However, crazy wind and an unexpected thunderstorm, meant that the dive was just a metaphorical train wreck, instead of an actual one and we came home wet and sad. After that the wind swung to the north and we were able to get three great days out at sea along the southern coast of Penwith, offshore from the enchanted coves of Mousehole, Lamorna and Porthcurno. Our best achievement as well organised and highly skilled seamen and women was to land a shot-line on the runnelstone pinnacle in a 5knot current and getting amazing dives for everyone on board with a slack tide of just 1 hour! Thank you to Tom, Farah, Olivia, Simon, Ollie and Penny for an amazing week.

The price of luxury in paradise?

Wow 18 months have past since my last blog. The last entry celebrated the fact that I had finally managed to raise enough money to finish my PhD and I guess I’ve spent the past 18 months just getting that done! I’ve now handed in a draft, had my viva (final exam) and done the corrections, so now I’m finally free to go back to trying to protect the oceans from human destruction. The PhD was a crucial hurdle to focus my mind and spend the time working on one thing, but I’m so glad I can branch out and start thinking about other things now! My most recent research trip was to the Maldives to look at the impacts of the major coral reef bleaching which occurred there in April this year. The same conservation and research organisation that organised the expedition also work with resorts in the Maldives and their role in helping conservation, or hindering it. This post I want to look at the costs and benefits for tourists and people like me enjoying the incredible reefs and islands of the Maldives.

Its always really interesting getting questions from people back home when I’ve been away, especially to see what their impressions of what the place looks like. The Maldives, more than anywhere, tends have an evocative and paradisiacal image of untouched beauty, with hardly any people and simple beach huts. The reality is that annually over 1 million tourists from China, Japan and Europe arrive in the Maldives and are divided between over 100 all inclusive resort islands spread throughout the country. On each island the guests are treated to air-conditioned rooms, imported European cuisine, swimming pools, spas and water sports. The biggest island in the Maldives is a mere 6km² and most are much smaller than this. Somehow each island has to have its own power station, desalination plant and sewage treatment facilities to maintain Western standards of living. Some resorts manage their resources quite well, but too many have inadequate environmental measures, causing pollution from sewage, sand from beach replenishment and other human pressures to impact the local marine environment.

Sewage outflow from some reefs is not adequately treated, and while it providing some food for these surgeonfish, it is polluting the water and threatening sensitive corals.

Despite these issues, several influences of the resorts and tourists visiting them are helping to maintain the Maldives incredible marine life. Fishing is prohibited around resort islands, making the resort islands de facto marine parks. This is helping maintain crucial ecological processes on the reef through ecological roles a healthy fish community has for maintaining corals and other reef organisms and also helps to protect top predators, such as sharks and grouper, which are highly overfished globally. Snorkelling and diving were rated as the most enjoyed element to people’s trip to the Maldives, based on a government survey.  Tourist enjoyment of marine life in the Maldives gives it a hard value, which resorts and the government have stake in protecting. It has been estimated that the value of whale shark and manta ray tourism in the Maldives is $18 million a year.

Most reef sharks are completely harmless and are truly spectacular animals to see. 

Manta tourism in the Maldives is helping protect this beautiful creature with active conservation efforts with strong public support.

So should you go on a holiday to the Maldives? Well, your visit may have some impact on the reef directly via the resort and will certainly have a climate impact through the flight, imported goods and energy needed to maintain tourists. However, your visit can help protect the reef and your enjoyment of it may even help reefs in the long term. I am a firm believer of the David Attenborough quote, “No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about they have never experienced”. If you want to find out more, here’s a short blog post about some of the most environmentally friendly resorts in the Maldives. The aquatic primate is back!

Guest houses on local islands are a minor section of the tourist industry and can offer a more authentic Maldivian experience.

And its not all about lying under palm trees on the beach either.

You may even end up as nuts about the reefs there as me and others I know :-).