Well it was back up plan B on Saturday following DUE's cancelled dive on the Cuvier
Fortunately Helen had a couple of spaces left on the Fish Identification for Divers course in great Yarmouth (with a small g
).
Author Dr Frances Dipper was the tutor and around twenty fish detectives met at the SeaLife Centre for a pretty intensive day. Classification, features, groups and families were covered, then on to the really good stuff. After a talk on FLEMMS and practising on slides, we got hold of the preserved fish. Counting the fins (dorsal & ventral), noting lateral lines, eyes, mouth, markings and size and how to make a really fast diagrammatic drawing. It was all interesting stuff and the mixed crowd of divers and National Trust wardens really enjoyed the hands-work.
After a lunch break, which I spent in the sunshine, bird-watching with the wardens from Morston & Blakeney Point (I know, a busman's holiday
- but there is only one pair of Mediterranean Gulls on the Point, and there was a huge colony on the beach @ Yarmouth
) ........
Back to the Aquarium along with dozens of screaming kids :happiness: we wandered around mis-counting fins and generally making fools of ourselves. Some lovely sharks live there, but it was quite sad that even fish seemed to be bored with the small, uninteresting surroundings that they were confined to. Apparently, North Norfolk Divers used to clean the glass @ the Aquarium for a couple of season, until it was 'reported' /useless info. And lastly we covered tricks of the trade and made a stab at identifying other photos of mystery fish.
I bought a copy of Dr Dipper's book British Sea Fishes which is a field guide to ID and is extremely well written and very straightforward to use, so now I can tell my Pollack
(pollachius pollachius)from my Pouting (
trisopterus luscus) and my Haddock from my Whiting! Frances was an excellent speaker, witty, knowledgeable and with over 35 years of diving under her belt, it was nice to hear things with a diving slant too. Sadly she no longer dives in the UK as she has been spoiled
diving the reefs of the Caribbean which is where her current projects are happening. She really was very interesting and everyone who participated found the day very worthwhile.
Di