Wetnotes

After over 50 years of many theorising the existence of a mega cave system stretching over three counties, the prospect of attempting a trip from one end of the system to the other eventually emerged. After many months of careful preparation, Chris Jewell and Jason Mallinson took on the traverse, consisting of over 2.2km spent underwater and 8.6km of cave crawling.

The sound of bombs reverberates through frigid water, a bubble jacuzzi vibrates all around. One thud from above is rhythmically followed by another. Inches away, a pointed beak slices through the surface, the tip of a white torpedo. An unblinking gaze stares back, yellow eyes framed by blue rings. It’s just another day in the life of a northern gannet, but a spectacle rarely seen by human eyes and one Henley Spiers sure won’t forget in a hurry.

Others might spend a weekend in February going skiing, suntanning at the beach, enjoying a good movie and a cup of tea or spending time with the family. Shaff however, will be spending his underwater. The entire weekend? Pretty much!

We are on a journey to become OceanPositive and we are excited to share with you the milestones (and challenges) that we encounter along the way. Certainly some of our ambitions are big but even the little things add up to something greater and we want to celebrate those too.

What would we do if countries all over the world starting closing children’s kindergartens and primary schools? If the buildings were knocked down and the sites left derelict, and the toddlers were just left to wander the towns and cities? It’s happening right now in our rivers, estuaries and oceans.

Is Scapa on your list of must-dives? These sheltered waters have played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries but with breathtaking coastlines it's hard to imagine the harsh reality of the events that took place here during WW1 & WW2 . Ross McLaren shares his highs and lows of his first experience of diving Scapa and shows us the beauty of nature reclaiming these once deadly vessels.

At fourth element, we want to ensure that we are listening to and working with the women of diving that we champion every day. To check in on this, we put out a call to the members of the Girls that Scuba facebook and instagram group to design their perfect piece of swimwear! We have looked at all the designs submitted and we will be using this valuable creative information to analyse what we do well and where we can improve for future designs.

We set out our new intentions for OceanPositive on World Oceans Day, June 2021, with some high ambitions of what we want to achieve in the next decade for the environment that we care for so dearly. This august has seen some really positive updates and we invite you to come celebrate these success with us.

It looks like most of us aren’t going anywhere far this year and that’s fine by us! Our team have some tried and tested recommendations of items to take with you on your staycation to get the most out of this summer.

Concerned that he was more likely to see a shark on a menu than underwater, diver Graham Buckingham decided to challenge a local restaurant for serving shark fin soup. After several conversations the London restaurant decided to change its menu. The concept for Bite-Back was born. Since then thousands of people have used the charity’s ethos and materials to successfully challenge shops and restaurants in their own neighbourhoods.