Bubbles March - April 2013

T HE A T LA M SUBA QUA C LUB E -M A G A Z I N E

MARCH / APRIL 2013 NEW 2013 Atlam Committee Members :Nader Bassily Joseph Azzopardi Denise Baker Nicholas Agius Simon Ciantar Anton Debatista Reuben Borg

President Secretrty Treasurer Diving Officer PRO Activity Officier Activity Officier

nbassily@vol.net.mt guzeppi56@gmail.com denise.baker63@ymail.com agius.nick@gmail.com scagn@go.net.mt andeb@go.net.mt reuben.borg@vodafone.com.mt

IN THIS ISSUE

page

• Note from the Editor

2

• Surface Tether Diving: History - Dorian Law

3/5

• Species Page - Shrimps - Edward Vella

6

• Website of the month - Dorian Law

7

• Dived Where? Wied il-Mielah, Gozo - Dorian Law 8 • A novel way to cook a lobster - Bill Hewitt • Filfla Danger UXO - Edward Vella • Dive Logs - Ras il-Hobz - 14/04/13 - Edward Vella - Dives Location Map - Joe Formosa

www.atlam.org Photo by: Joe Formosa

info@atlam.org

9/10 11/12 13 14

Editorial Note Welcome to the second issue of Bubbles for 2013!

For sure there must be many weather frustrated divers out there… Up to now, this year has not been very co-operative with high winds shifting direction in the worst moment; also sea visibility has been on the low side – not helped for sure by the sustained wind. Many dives have been cancelled – including our first two club boat-dives. So I can imagine that many are now indulging in severe day dreaming of when the summer weather finally settles in – dreaming of the diving boat navigating in mirror calm seas and dropping anchor at the favourite dive spot, a super dive in crystal clear waters, and then the galletti dips washed down with ice cold beer…

Of course, alternatively, you may always take a trip to Cocos Island – the island where the ocean currents meet - way down Costa Rica way! That is just what two of our intrepid divers did – and I am sure that most of you will be eager to read all about it – watch out for it in a future issue of your favourite e-magazine!

In the background to all of this is the anticipation of moving to the new premises at Bahar ic-Caghaq.. a long drawn out saga, but thanks to the Committee’s blood, sweat and tears the story continues and now looks to be coasting to realisation. This has undoubtedly injected new energy into the members, resulting in a surplus of candidates for the new committee, and now an appeal goes out to the members. There is still work to be done, and the newly elected committee will surely start devising ways to finalise it. For example by participating in organised events, the members would be sending the right encouraging signals to the committee, and also provide much needed revenue.

This project has drawn deeply into the club’s financial resources. The rate of recovery will depend greatly on the members’ response.

This brings up again the matter of the timely payment of the membership fee, which as one can imagine, this year it is sorely needed. First of all, the membership fee is the club’s primary source of income, and more fundamental than this, is that if the membership fee is not settled, then you are not a member. Unfortunately it is as simple as that – so come on step forward and do your Atlam duty!

For sure following the coming open day, those members who will be attending, will be VERY IMPRESSED with the new premises, both the building and the view from the ultra wide balcony, are nothing short of FANTASTIC! Do not miss this one!

Keep diving, Edward Vella

Sunday 5th May from 1.30 pm.

(After the boat dive which members are also urged to attend)

Members are invited to come to the new premises to see for themselves our (hopefully shortly to be)

new club premises.

Finger food and drinks will be available.

JOIN ATLAM SUBAQUA CLUB and share the fun & experience

Activities for Divers: • Shore Dives • Boat Dives • Night Dive • Diving Excursions Abroad • U/W Photo Competitions • Lectures on various subjects • Nitrox Courses.

• Free e-magazine

Activities for the whole family • Weekly Club Nights & Bar • Barbecues • Majjalata • Pasta Nights • Boat Parties • Gozo Diving Breaks • Camping on Comino and other places.

For more info contact the President Nader Bassily on 99499101

Surface Tether Diving: History

by Dorian Law

Dear Atlam divers, In his quest to discover the unknown, man has put himself at the forefront of the race to achieve better knowledge of what is normally hidden to his senses.

Many times, in this process, man is inspired by the animal kingdom. A clear example might be the flight of birds that had inspired, American brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright to invent and build, on December 17, 1903 the world’s first successful fixed-wing, powered and controlled airplane.

inflate the lungs. A well trained athlete, with powerful inhaling capabilities, might get a breath or two from a 25mm pipe at a depth of 2metres. Then it will feel like the air is literally being taken out of his lungs because of the higher pressure (1.2bar @ 2metres) pressing on the chest against the surface pressure (1bar). Although it looks small, a 0.2bar difference makes inhaling very difficult; try inhaling against a vacuum cleaner! It generally becomes difficult to breathe underwater through a 1metre long tube.

Snorkel.

Man’s lungs cannot extract oxygen from the water itself the way fish’s gills do and our breath holding capacity is limited and not as efficient as that of other marine mammals like dolphins and whales. Man had to come up with a solution as to how he could breathe air whilst in the water. The 25mm long whip-tailed larvae (grub) of the drone fly (Eristalis tenax) is able to extend the protractile of its appendix by more than 10cms. This allows the insect to draw air while staying submerged underwater away from the harsh climate and from predators. Another mammal, capable of staying submerged whilst taking air from the surface is the elephant, which is capable of swimming or walking on the bottom of streams or ponds while using its trunk to breath.

The sight of pachyderms like the elephant, with their proboscises out of the water to breath, must have inspired the pre-historic hunters to use hollowed reed (cane) as breathing tubes to help them stalk animals that came to drink water on the banks of rivers or lakes. The use of such hollow tubes is also mentioned

by the 4th century BC Greek philosopher Aristotle.

This technique was also used by the Romans during underwater incursions on their enemy, as early as 375AD. This also inspired inventor Leonardo da Vinci to devise a flexible underwater breathing tube that was held on the surface with a disk shaped wooden float on one side, while on the other side, the flexible mouthpiece was fastened behind the diver’s head.

These early diving experimenters quickly discovered that it is not enough simply to supply air through a tube in order to breathe comfortably underwater.

With today ‘s knowledge of diving physics, one clearly understands why the hollow reed was not going to help man reach the diving depths that are being reached nowadays. As one descends, in addition to the normal 1bar atmospheric pressure, water exerts increasing pressure on the flexible chest and lungs at approximately 1 bar for every 10 metres of depth. The pressure of the inhaled breath must almost exactly counter the surrounding or ambient pressure to

Air sack.

Man continued to devise methods to increase his limited ability to stay submerged for longer. An Assyrian bass-relief (two dimensional shallowcarving) dated 900BC depicts a man with diving bags in the water. Another illustration from the Middle Ages, dated 375AD shows a man breathing air from some sort of inflated sac, most probably made from an animal’s bladder. The two inventions that might have contributed most towards today’s scuba diving, where made by the 17th century inventor Giovanni Alfonso Borelli. He sketched a leather bag which was carried on the diver’s back with buoyancy being adjusted by means of a piston, thus, paving the way for the aqualung. The other Borelli invention was a selfcontained recirculating breathing apparatus in which the exhaled air was purified through cooling water, probably the first re-breather. The air sack concept was short lived, that is, not until an invention to purify the air, like scrubbers, and oxygen replenishment was made.

Human lobster.

Since any collapsible bag could not withstand the increase in pressure with depth, man ‘went rigid’.

Most probably, early man used an inverted wooden bucket or cask. Filled with air at the surface, the user had to be weighted down to counteract the positive buoyancy of the entrapped air. Da Vinci’s designs, although never put to practice, were probably the first plans towards todays’ submersibles. These were followed by the armor concept, after a long series of unsuccessful trials with other types of gear. In 1715, John Lethbridge constructed a 2metre long, 60cm in diametre, 120litre air capacity cylindrical leather case, shaped with iron hoops to counteract pressure. With holes for protruding arms, a glass to look through and heavily weighted, Mr. Lethbridge ‘claimed’ to have dived many times to 60metres whilst lying on his breast.

In 1882, French Carmagnole brothers, patented a metal diving dress with 22 ball and socket joints.

Even if movement was restricted due to their rigidity, metal provided protection against hydrostatic pressure, while the linen lined joints were a further improvement over the bellows used in previous designs. The Carmagnole helmet had a number of small round windows spaced the same distance apart as the diver’s eyes, a unique feature never to be found on other diving helmets. Further improvements followed with the aim of reducing the weight and stiffness and increasing the operating depth. A further development followed, when in 1913, German designers Neufeldt and Kuhnke, designed a rigid suit with a combination of ball bearing and ball and socket joints. In 1931, this suit design, together with the Galeazzi chamber took part in the first successful deep water salvage operation, when divers on the salvage ship S.S. Artiglio recovered more than 4tons of gold and 2tons of silver from the wreck of the S.S. Egypt at a depth exceeding 120metres.

Diving bell.

Due to the air trapped in the air-space, the diving bell is prone to ascend if it is not weighted down. This was achieved by the use of lead weight, metal ballast or by using heavy gauge steel for the construction of the bell. Due to its’ weight, the bell had to be hung down the side of ships with the use of ropes. The rigid diving bell has been used successfully as early as the sixteenth century. A small cylindrical shaped device designed by Guglielmo de Lorena was suspended from a support ship, while its’ glass observation window was used to search ships in Lake Nemi, south of Rome. In 1687 on the Silver Banks, north of the Dominican Republic, William Phips used the bell concept, at a depth slightly over 10metres, to recover the world famous treasure of the sunken Spanish galleon ‘Nuestra Segnora de la Conception’.

Since the volume of air inside the bell is reduced with the increase in pressure on descend, the amount of time available to spend is very limited. This is further reduced by the contamination of the air by the exhalation of the divers inside the bell. With the bell suspended above the sea floor the diver, either ascended with the bell when it was pulled up or he

ducked under the rim or hood and swam free to the surface. In 1660 Robert Boyle defined the physical laws governing gases under pressure and set forward man’s next challenge; how to get air down to the diving bell, thus replenishing and extending the air supply and the time that could be spent submerged.

Astronomer Edmund Halley (of the Halley’s Comet) built a heavily ballasted wooden bell with the air being renewed by having smaller barrels sent down from the surface. In 1689, steam engine pioneer and inventor Denis Papin used an air pump to continuously supply air to a diving bell. The bell was fully filled with fresh air at any depth with excess air flowing from the bottom out of the rim. This prevented the bell from trying to ascend when the diver entered the air chamber as in previous designs. Many more inventions followed until the year 1820 when a major breakthrough was made.

Hard hats: The Mini Bells.

In 1820, Augustus Siebe displayed his open diving to change the basic design concept. dress which consisted of a hard helmet and a leather This was a brief history of the evolution of hard hat jacket. Pressure-pumped air was supplied diving and further reading on the subject is into the helmet from above while suggested. In the next issue of the Bubbles excess and exhaled air escaped newsletter we will continue with from beneath the jacket at the further information on submerging diver’s waist. This worked like a chambers, submersibles and miniature diving bell. In 1834, today’s application of hard hat American inventor L. Norcross diving. designed the first flexible Since then, I would suggest diving suit that enclosed that you try to use a hard the diver completely. hat in shallow water. This Since air always rises, can easily be done. Put on a foul and excess air weight belt and your mask. was exhausted via an Then put a pail or bucket on inverted siphon shaped your head and start walking air outlet valve situated down in the water until you on top of the helmet. are completely submerged. You Three years later, Augustus might need some force to Siebe combined his drag down the bucket! There previous open design you go. You are now a hard with that of Mr. Norcross hat diver. See you in the and presented his closed water. diving suit. Siebe’s closed diving suit became the basic model for other Enjoy safe diving, diving suits and although many alterations have been made, none of them was so major as

Dorian Law

Species Page Research by: Edward Vella

SHRIMPS Gambli

Although everybody knows that they are there, they are very difficult to observe during day time dives, but come night, and shrimps are given away by their highly reflective eyes! For example, at Wied iz-Zurrieq creek at night, where shrimps (of various types) congregate, frequent encounters with their ‘glow in the dark’ eyes are made. Shrimp types also inhabit the dark of caverns, where in certain instances; sections of walls seem to be alive with their sheer numbers.

Shrimps are crustaceans, that is, they belong to the same family as crabs and lobsters among others. If one had to compare shrimps with these two, it would be evident that they are more akin to lobsters, with their long muscular abdomens. Shrimps rest only lightly on their ten legs, and use the muscles in their abdomen to swim rather than walk (not as lobsters and crabs do). They flick their abdomen, and open their tail to produce a very fast backward motion, used to get them out of the way of any perceived predator attack.

Shrimps are an important level in any eco-system, in that since they are normally to be found in relative abundance, they provide food to a wide range of predators, mostly fish, which would otherwise not survive in that environment. Of course, shrimps also happen to occur in many a menu, since they have been considered an important prize by man since a long time!

There are so many shrimp species, even locally, that it is bewildering to include all in this short article.

There is for example that shrimp which is sometimes seen risking life and limb by (of all places) picking food remains from between the teeth of moray eels (Murena helena)! It could be that there is more than one of these daredevil species, but the hero which I once came across was a Monaco Shrimp (Lysmata seticaudata).

Main photo by: Joe Formosa

During the decompression stage of the closing boat dive for 2012, after a dive on the Imperial Eagle at Qawra Point, a movement was noticed on a couple of the divers’ gloves. They had been gripping a rope on which juvenile Mantis Shrimp (Squilla mantis) had found refuge in between its fibres. The mantis is a deep water shrimp so called because it has two mid-hinged appendages which it uses to catch its prey in a way that resembles the praying mantis insect.

The Common Prawn (Palaemon serratus), illustrated on this page is not as common as its namesake would suggest, and it is almost impossible to spot during daytime, but as previously stated, its eyes act as excellent reflectors and shows up quite nicely at night in the concentrated light of the torch beam.

I learnt that, shrimps can only mate with each other when the female has just moulted (that is, just changed her external skeleton, as all crustaceans do). The female can then mate and deposit eggs up to three times per year. She then attaches the fertilised eggs to hairs under her tail to protect the eggs. The female will carry all the eggs with her during incubation, for a period depending on how warm the water is.

There is no ocean in the world where shrimps are not present.

May Species ­- Worms Photo by Joe Formosa Photo by: Joe Formosa

Photo by Mario Micallef

PLEASE SEND PHOTOS

Book of the Month Name of Book: Sea fishes and invertebrates of the Maltese islands and the Mediterranean sea.

Author: Lawson Wood.

Publisher: New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd. London. United Kingdom.

ISBN Number: 99909 – 3 – 067 – 8.

Book in short: The Mediterranean is the subject of an extensive and informative introduction with many topics including man’s impact, the killer algae and habitats like rock pools, sand, rocky shores, piers, shipwrecks and posidonia. Other topics include endangered species, conservation, tourism and a description of the diving areas from Spain to Greece and Turkey to Morocco.

Article by Dorian Law The key to symbols used, a description of the external features of fish, an identification of groups and a pictorial guide to the families, prepare the reader to the four chapters that form part of the book as described below.

Plants: Sea grasses and algae.

Invertebrates: Sponges, bryozoans, worms, mollusks and crustaceans form a part of this chapter.

Fish: This includes, but is not limited to fish families like sharks, eels, groupers, mullet, bream and wrasse.

Other Vertebrates: Turtles and dolphins.

The following quote in the introduction of the book, describes to the reader the Mediterranean Sea and what he can expect to find in this very beautiful sea of ours, and makes this the book of the month.

‘Known as the ‘Cradle of Civilization’, the Mediterranean Sea is now set in a massive flooded depression in the earth’s crust formed over millennia….

The habitats are as diverse as they are in any specialized environment and, although there are some very deep basins in this sea, we shall only concern ourselves with the veneer, which we are able to see whilst visiting this ancient sea whether by scuba diving, snorkeling or rock-pooling.’

Availability: Item 003 039 151.

Malta Public Library. Floriana.

www. Website of the Month.com

Name of website: Dive Magazine.

Access to website: www.divemagazine. co.uk Other access: Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

Purpose of site: To promote Dive magazine and diving in general Features: The header features the name and logo of Dive magazine. A thirteen option menu bar with further ‘mouse over’ drop down options is also part of the header. The options open in new pages and apart from the home and login, the most important features are as follows: News: Latest news and archive.

Features and the Magazine: Photography, skill, marine life and subscribe.

Travel: Offers, destinations and feature destination.

Kit: Seller links and information on dive kits.

Galleries and Downloads: Photos, dive galleries and Dive downloads for screensavers and wallpapers.

Dive blogs, Quiz corner and Competitions: As the name implies including the magazine competition.

Below the header, on the left hand side, a quick link titled ‘Click here for your FREE digital subscription to DIVE magazine’, does exactly as stated and provides the reader with the possibility of getting the free edition of this magazine by e-mail. Other options also on the left column, give the reader the possibility to read the magazine on pc/mac, Apple and Android. The extensive left hand column continues with information on Oman, Red Sea and the Maldives, quick links to travel and shopping partners, scuba tube and dive’s twitter feeds.

The central column is characterized by the always changing top feature providing ongoing information which can then be selected as quick link to provide the desired information. This central column continues with the latest information on news, travel, kit and user reviews. The right hand column is dedicated to advertisement with quick links to the selected option.

Why visit this website: If you are looking for a very informative and interesting to read diving magazine and website, that has been around for quite some time, then this is a must site to visit.

Type of dive:

“Dived Where"!!!

Unfrequented dive sites of the Maltese islands, where you will ask your buddy ”Where’s everybody?”

Article by Dorian Law

Wied il-Miela˙ Gozo.

Shore or boat dive. Air or Nitrox. Day dive.

Location: Wied il-Mielaħ is situated on the Northwestern promontory of the island of Gozo, North Northwest of the Ta’ Gordan Lighthouse. When coming from Gharb take Frenc ta’ l-Gharb road on the right hand side of the village church. Drive on this road then go straight past the three way junction on Il-Blata road. Turn right on the next two way junction then left on Ta’ Wied il-Mielaħ road. This road through the fields leads to the small sheltered sea inlet and the picturesque arch that characterizes this area. Follow the signs to the site.

Access: From the parking area a flight of steps and a manmade walkway leads to the entry point. A ladder is normally installed but might be missing during certain times of the year or due to vandalism. Exit without equipment is required when the ladder is missing and the use of a short rope to pull up the equipment is advisable.

When Not to dive: When winds blow from West (Punent) to East (Lvant).

Depth: Up to 20 metres along the breakwater and 50+ metres offshore.

Current & Visibility: Low current can be present around the East promontory. Visibility over 30 metres.

Photo courtesy of: Joe Formosa

Base photo by: Joe Formosa

The Dive

Entry is made in the sheltered inlet inside the arch. Passing under the arch on the surface and admiring what is left of this old cave system is the ideal way to start the dive. Head straight out to the foot of the arch. When looking back, a large fissure on the left hand side indicates the entrance to the cave which will be explored at the end of the dive. This is a typical square dive and begins with a bearing due North towards the open sea where the depths drop fast from 15 to 30metres then slope down to over 50metres beyond the inshore ledge. When the maximum depth is reached, the dive continues East or West before turning due South towards the inshore wall and the shallower part of the dive. The end of the dive is as spectacular as the beginning. After passing through the arch at a depth of about 12metres, head towards the Southern wall through the large fissure where the dive continues inside the 50metre long Wied il-Mielaħ Cave where any decompression can be completed before surfacing outside the cave just in front of the exit point. When diving by boat it is best to anchor just outside the arch. Small boats can make it through the arch and anchor in front of the cave and attention to (infrequent) bathers in the area is advisable. For a more detailed description of the cave and its features please refer to the article by Mr. Tano Role in the Bubbles edition May-June 2012.

Important Notice: The information contained might not be accurate or reflect the conditions found daily at the site. More accurate information should be obtained prior to planning to dive these sites.

A novel way to cook a lobster Introduction Bill Hewitt the author of this article, and Tom Cowan are no newcomers to Atlam, having participated for many times in the Atlam vs BA photographic competition. Here, Bill graciously gave his consent to Atlam to reproduce his original article (thanks also to Mario Micallef, through whom this was made possible), and tells his story of an encounter during a dive in the UK, with a lobster (named posthumously Lenny) who made an unfortunate choice of home……

27 September 2009

Monday 5 October

We launched our RIB from Poole, Peter Hewitt, Tom Cowan, Ahmet Adag and I. It was a lovely sunny day and the sea was calm. Tom and Ahmet dived first and it was just after slack when they surfaced, so Pete and I opted for a slow drift near Ballard Point using a SMB.

I trawled through the web. There is a lot written about mines but very few pictures. There was nothing resembling the object we had found.

12:01 We entered the water and slowly drifted towards Poole in 18m. It was a gravel bottom and a bit flat, but you never know what you may find… we came across a John Dory, a painted ray, and a red gurnard. 12:28 We found a metal cylindrical object domed at one end an open at the other – about 2 ft round and 5ft long. The open end had a crack and a few dents…it appeared to be made of an alloy. It was covered in marine life hiding some of its features and did look a bit like a bomb or a mine. But as it was open at one end, and appeared empty apart from a resident lobster, we didn’t think it was dangerous. 12:32 We continued our dive.

One week later…

We started taking a closer look at our photos. We noticed one where the flash had lit up the area behind the lobster showing that most of the object was solid.

When drift diving, the boat handler normally takes a few GPS readings of our SMB just in case we find a good spot that we’d like to dive again. Tom had taken one at 12:28 so we had accurate GPS marks.

Tuesday 6 October 11:30 I contacted Portland Coastguard and subsequently emailed four photos.

14:00 A man form the MOD Bomb Disposal Unit phoned for first hand details. He had not yet seen the photos, but wondered…had we anymore? Six more images were duly sent as Pete had taken some close-ups, some of which would have shown more detail if the lobster had not got in the way!

Wednesday 7 October 13:00 The coastguard rang to ask if they could release our photos as the press had missed the explosion. “Explosion.”

I asked? The reply…”It was blown up at 12:30 and we held a one minute silence for Lenny, the lobster” The event was reported in the local press. (see next page)

Wartime bomb explosion rocks Swanage 8:30am Thursday 8th October 2009 in Search By Juliette Astrup A 600lb Second World War mine was detonated in Swanage Bay creating a massive plume of water and shock waves which shook the town.

The huge device, which still contained highly explosive material, was exploded by Navy bomb disposal experts at 12.30pm on Wednesday.

It sent a 30ft plume of water into the air and shook the floor beneath the feet of unsuspecting Swanage residents.

Advertising executive Sarah Crabb said: “We didn’t hear it, but we felt the ground shake for a good couple of seconds – which is a long time when that happens.

“We didn’t know what it was – the whole ground shook.”

The device was discovered by divers on Tuesday, who photographed it an alerted the Coastguard.

They notified bomb disposal experts, who used the image to identify the bomb as a Second World War ground mine which would have been dropped by an aircraft. It had lain undiscovered from more than 60 years.

Coastguard watch officer John Braisher said the bomb disposal team hired Swanage dive boat Skua and located the mine a kilometre east of Ballard Point.

An exclusion zone was put in place and Coastguard teams from Swanage and St Aldhelm’s cleared the public from Ballard Point. Police RIBs were deployed to maintain the zone at sea. The device was then detonated in a controlled explosion.

So if you’re not sure what something is, don’t chip away at with your knife, it might be FLASH BANG WALLOP! Tom

Filfla-Danger UXO Article by Edward Vella

Watching the sun set on a balmy summer evening, Filfla, like a solid rock sentinel, never fails to add tranquillity to the timeless scene. Knowing that beyond her and the North African coast is but empty Mediterranean gives it a sense of isolation and mystery.

Not so long ago however, other eyes looked at Filfla on less of a romantic, and more on a practical level: it has a shape which can be assimilated to a ship, it is sufficiently far away from the mainland, and it is uninhabited – therefore excellent for target practice! Shooting at Filfla had been going on for at least a couple of centuries, but it started in earnest in the years following World War Two, and continued right up to 1971.

Both the British Armed Forces (RN and RAF) as well as other NATO forces used Filfla for target practice. Military aircraft operating from the nearby Royal Navy Air Station at Hal Far as well as from aircraft carriers delivered so much ordnance that they changed the island’s shape.

As far as ordnance (ammunition) goes – Filfla has had everything thrown at her – naval shells, aerial bombs, rockets… I found that in 1956 RN carriers made constant use of Hal Far and saw the busiest flying period on record at that airfield with up to ten frontline squadrons at a time regularly carrying out live armament practice and rocket firing off Delimara and on Filfla…

Not all of the ammunition thrown at Filfla exploded however – among them were those that are called ‘duds’ – in other words defective or damaged shells, bombs or rockets that failed to explode. The surrounding area around Filfla was never cleaned, and so to this very day, the sea especially immediately close to it is full of what is termed as UXO – UneXploded Ordnance.

Back ground Photo by Edward Vella

Ever since Filfla and its surroundings became a nature reserve in 1980, access became strictly by permission.

Thanks to Atlam SAC obtaining this permission, diving trips to Filfla have been organised on an almost annual basis. The sea around Filfla is remarkable by its clarity, with excellent underwater visibility, (even though, fish life is not as prolific as one would imagine it to be at such a remote dive site). On such trips, the first dive takes place on a reef due South of Filfla, and a second shallower one close to a rocky outcrop to its West.

Photo by Mario Micallef

Here, the sea bed at more or less Filfla’s base, is a boulder strewn plateau where one can frequently encounter UXO. Here are excerpts from three separate dive logs: “We headed west until we were at a depth of 21m and we came across a rocket. The tubular body was lying at the base of some large rocks, then at right angles to it wedged under a rock I noticed a rusty cylindrical shape - the war head!

Obviously still live since it was there! It looked like an air to ground type.”

“During the dive, several times, we came across unexploded ordnance, one of them was a very large naval shell, I would estimate about 130cm, it impressed us by its sheer size.”

“But if the sea life was not so evident, the survivors from colonial times were very much in view! I am referring to unexploded shells and bombs from Filfla’s target practice days! Those inconspicuous rusting cylindrical shapes - whose sizes (of those we saw) ranged from 30cm to about 1.75m …”

It does not take a lot of thought here to conclude that the way to go here is to see but not to touch!

All photos by Tano RolĂŠ

Ras il-Hobz

- Gozo 14.04.13

For the first dive of the season, Ras il-Hobz was chosen…. now for many this seemed like an unlikely choice given that the weather forecast was a mildly moderate Easterly.

It was nice to meet skipper Joseph again on board the good old Atlantis II! Ras il-Hobz is one of the ‘parachute’ dive sites, that is, it saves the day when the North West is doing its thing. With the NW, the boat dive choice would normally be restricted to the sheltered Gozo South coast dive sites: Ta’ Cenc, Fessej Rock, Ras il-Hobz, and the Wrecks. (In my opinion, Ras il-Hobz is the best of this lot.) This time, however, there were no such restrictions, so why then?

All was explained on the Marfa Quay…. This time it was to be Ras il-Hobz because of the student divers! We all obviously have been through the student phase, and it was generally agreed that all in all, it had been a good compromise. The students would have a wide gently sloping reef shelf; the seasoned divers would have the wild blue!

Since Ras il-Hobz is facing South towards Malta, the boat trip itself only takes about 30 minutes, and so the students had a relatively short time to prepare themselves for the dive – always a bit hectic when you are still settling down… The Atlantis II anchored in a small cove quite close to where the shoreline makes a sort of a dog’s leg into another cove.

Actually within a few more dives, the students should be able to better enjoy this site, because the dive is very simple - once out of the cove, where the Atlantis II was anchored, the diver comes to a sheer drop off, the base of which is I would estimate to be about 25m. Outwards from the drop off wall, the sea bed slopes down, and from a previous dive I know that there is a second drop off the top of which is at about 35 -40m, and the bottom in very deep water, which then slopes off even deeper.

As soon as we went over the drop off at about 12m we descended slowly, keeping the reef wall on our left until after about 7 minutes into the dive, a dark shadow appeared to our right. Yes you must have guessed, it

Article by Edward Vella

“The Middle Finger” - Photo by Joe Formosa

was the middle finger! (Middle Finger? That’s right in the diving tourist brochures this free standing rock column is now being called ‘The Middle Finger’!)

This time we stopped at about 30m, and looking up from its base at this tower of rock is truly impressive.

On its northern side, it is quite close to the cliff wall, so it seems evident that the pinnacle must have in the past been joined by a softer rock which in time dissolved away leaving it standing on its own. We spiraled up slowly around the tapering column, until eventually we came to its top which is around 12m beneath the surface.

In past dives groupers and moray eels had been sighted in the columns recesses, but this time we did not come across any, in fact as far as sea life encounters go, this time, no significant sightings were made.

Soon it was time to return home. The students had a hard earned instructor signature in their log books, and the rest of the divers were now looking forward to their Sunday lunch!

A nice relaxed dive to kick off the boat dive season!.

Background photo by Edward Vella