Down under at Dunollie point

In this week’s Oban Times we take time out from being shore-bound and take a peek at what lies under the sea off Dunollie Point.

Dave Bleazard of Outside Edge, Oban is a keen diver and also chairperson of Adventure Oban.

Keen diver and chairperson of Adventure Oban, Dave Bleazard shares some of the photographs he has snapped all in the last year at that location.

This creature is typically 2 to 3cms long, but well-fed ones can be up to 8cm.

Dave tells us: “I’ve been diving Dunollie since I arrived in Oban 38 years ago and instructed with the Oban Sub Aqua Club. It’s amazing, a jewel in Oban’s dive crown. Swept by a good current going in and out of Oban Bay it has a great diversity of life and never disappoints as a dive. Many divers we have taught have taken their first steps there and many are still coming back to re-experience it. It’s great as a day light dive but amazing at night when the marine life comes out.”

Curled Octopus is a species of cephalopod found in the northeast Atlantic, ranging from Norway to the Mediterranean, including the British Isles.

The diversity of underwater life also attracts lots of anglers. Having been fished for generations, there is a lot of discarded fishing tackle and in the spring of this year dive clubs from the area came together to spend a day clearing as much line as they could, added Dave.

The Painted Goby lives at depths from 1 to 55 metres.

And Dave has plans to repeat the exercise again in spring 2024 with thanks also to Dalriada Divers and the Highlands and Island Sub Aqua club, based at The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) at Dunstaffnage.

There are plans to have another clean-up dive at Dunollie Point in spring 2024.

Pogge at Dunollie Point. Instead of scales this fish is completely covered in hard bony plates.