I know you'all reckon them to be muddy lifeless ponds but not so......the first dive in Beaver pool certainly did it's best to give that impression..... but I remember my first ever dive with Gwynedd Sub-Aqua club. A beautiful sunny day in June and we were skimming the slight swell off north coast of Anglesey on the hunt for a wreck Jeremy swore was located just off Puffin Island. After an hour or so of fruitless searching we decided to shelter in the lee of Puffin Island and watch the seals while we ate our sandwiches. Desperation gaining the upper hand we raced across the bay to Moelfre and last ditch dive on the Royal Charter....my first sea dive since coming back from South Africa, mind! We submerged and I lost sight of everyone including my buddy (Mike) except for his fins, and as I sank I comforted myself with the thought that we'd probably move out of the sediment soon...alas, it took me to bash my nose on the bottom before I realised this was it, in 5m water, and the Royal Charter (at least that's what Mike insisted it was!) was no more than a slight hump in the endless sand and silt....so, the moral in that one, folks, is never, ever give up. There are good times just around the corner as Noel Coward said, or something like that..
We explored the landscape under the bridge and found a narrow chasm, with overhanging rocks and wonderfully sculpted from the current racing down. Not too deep at about 6ms but given the level of the river which we got from the automated level guage down at Cwm Llanerch this wasn't bad. The actual mean level of the pool further in is 9.5ms. This is where the fish hide out, but our main focus this time was to finish mapping the banks and cross section of the pool, so we could write a report that meant something.
Be there or be square!!
The second dive in Beaver Pool, after a good week or so without rain, was a different story....viz wasn't the sparkling 10-15ms one hopes for, but a decent 3-4 metres, and the landscape and life was revealed! Not a lot, but at the end of a cold May not very surprising maybe. The fish were still meant to be wending their way up from the sea, and although there was one brown trout lingering amongst the rocks we didn't see others...probably because we didn't explore the deeper boulders where they tend to hide out, but snorkelled the banks, up and down, both left and right bank, on the search for the bed of freshwater pearl mussels which EAW and CCW said we could go and look at, carefully, but not touch. This is one of the few remaining pearl mussel sites in England and Wales, although no longer viable as it isn't producing any juveniles. Probably due to pollution from farm run off. But we saw 2 large individuals and they can live to 30-40 years, so these were probably venerable elders. Lots of caddis fly larvae masquerading as twigs, leaves, flower buds and gravel, and a host of pretty snails getting up to all sorts of things.....; a hydra - better ask Kathryn about that; some interesting plants and algae. Apparently there are some 70 or so freshwater sponges in UK....if you know what to look for.
We explored the landscape under the bridge and found a narrow chasm, with overhanging rocks and wonderfully sculpted from the current racing down. Not too deep at about 6ms but given the level of the river which we got from the automated level guage down at Cwm Llanerch this wasn't bad. The actual mean level of the pool further in is 9.5ms. This is where the fish hide out, but our main focus this time was to finish mapping the banks and cross section of the pool, so we could write a report that meant something.
We also tried out our new turbidity tool before the dive - very high tech - called an Opalometer and the clarity was, given our previous experience of the site, surprising to say the least. All in all an enjoyable 45minute dive/snorkel. Liz was surface support and splashed about happily in the gravel shallows of the left bank while we sported.
And that's it for this year. A grand total of 2 dives on this site....not a lot to report but perhaps we'll get consent to do a further dive in the summer for comparison purposes....
On to pastures, or muddy holes, new......and we hope to get to dive Llyn Conwy and Llyn Gwynant (which may prove to be a viable club alternative site in future, once we've managed a recce dive to suss it out). There are a series of waterfalls and pools below Llyn Conwy on the Migneint that look interesting - so we'll probably try to get in them before the summer's out. Sole consent now needed is Welsh Water, for Llyn Conwy.
Last Friday Liz and I donned our wet weather gear and splashed our way round parts of Llyn Cwellyn - a beautiful lake along the Waunfawr to Beddgelert road. We met some lovely farmers and farmers' wives and one rather grumpy person who we don't need to meet again. It's here that Nigel Milner found arctic charr redds (spawning grounds) and we hope to repeat his survey of 1980 (!) and see how they're doing 30 years later. Easy access from various points and 120 feet in depth, with gravel lake bed.
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