Leonie and Caitlin Godfrey met up with Mark Blyth to talk about his diving experience in the Firth of Forth and discuss potential oyster basket trail site areas.
When I met Joe Terburgh – the razor clam diver – he mentioned his friend Mark Blyth who runs the Dive Bunker https://www.divebunker.co.uk/ at Burntisland in Fife and suggested speaking to him about his experience of diving in the Firth of Forth. Caitlin Godfrey who works for Marine Conservation Scotland on restoration of native oysters into the Firth of Forth as part of Restoration Forth (https://www.wwf.org.uk/scotland/restoration-forth ) came along and we were given a tour of the facilities at the Bunker while Mark talked about all the action on site including dive training, diving trips to explore wrecks and some of the best sites in the Firth of Forth plus a range of other services including wetsuit and equipment repairs, air cylinder fills and growing tomatoes in his self-made polytunnel!
Mark was brought up in Burntisland and as a result knows all the best dive sites and has exceptional knowledge of tides and currents and how these impact on sedimentation and the topography of the seabed which is deepest under the bridges at 72m and a few localised deep spots around for example the Blae Rock at 60m but most of the rest of the Firth is shallow at around 15m. Historically, Burntisland had extensive oyster scalps (beds) and the local fishing community has a history of oyster harvesting. The town features in what is referred to as the Oyster Wars in the 17th and 18th century where there was competition for fishing rights. In 1735 The Earl of Morton startled the Burntisland town council by claiming ownership of the oyster scalps lying offshore from his estate. Burntisland argued that the seas were open to all or at least to all local fishermen[1]. Sadly the oyster wars resolved nothing and oysters are now extinct in the Firth of Forth with the loss of all their filtering capacity cleaning the water and acting as a reef for other marine wildlife. Naomi Kennon – a restoration ecologist and researcher at Heriot Watt University has just published her research demonstrating that restored oyster reefs could lead to a doubling of biodiversity in just 10 years and she describes oyster beds as ‘analogous to a forest’ due to the astonishing variety of life which thrives there[2].
We asked Mark about the best sites from a biodiversity perspective and he highlighted the Blae Rock where he regularly takes divers to explore. A video on his website illustrates just how rich this site is – covered in dead men’s fingers – a soft coral, light bulb sea squirts, plumose anemones, dahlia anemones, spider crabs, starfish and layers of writhing brittle stars. Mark says if you drop anything it is instantly lost enveloped by the brittle stars on the sea bed. Mark’s video from a dive at the Blae Rock shows just how rich this site is:
https://divebunker.co.uk/diveSites.html
and this one from a diver on the Blae Rock:
https://worldadventuredivers.com/video-scuba-diving-in-the-firth-of-forth-scotland/
Mark has posted a whole range of videos on his website showing some of the wildlife on wrecks and natural rocky features which he regularly visits including the Vulcan – a 19th Century steamship which went aground on the Vows Rocks at Seafield. This is a site where Mark reckons there is good potential for oyster basket trials – Caitlin is researching the best sites in the Firth of Forth where baskets could be installed and monitored to assess survival and growth rates and in due course breeding – releasing spat (oyster babies) into the Firth of Forth for the first time in 100 years.
We also discussed water quality and Mark noted – as had Joe – that water clarity is much better on the North side of the Firth of Forth due to the currents coming up the East coast of Scotland and flowing west along the Fife coast. The sea around Kirkcaldy is particularly clear. He has observed significant improvements in water quality since he started his business over 30 years ago and which he attributes to industries closing down including the Burntisland Alcan Chemicals plant which closed in 2002 plus a number of paper mills and also less polluting activity at Rosyth.
Thanks to Mark for all his time and the contacts he has passed on which will allow us to gain more insight into condition and biodiversity in the Firth of Forth.
Leonie Alexander
August 2023
[1] The Firth of Forth – An Environmental History. T.C. Smout and Mairi Stewart
[2] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0283345
