Diving Southwest Britain, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and the Scilly Isles
What is it like?
 Some of the best diving in Britain has to be around this coastline, washed by the Gulf Stream which warms the waters, brings nutrients and clear waters. The nutrients bring larger visitors each spring and summer - dolphins, porpoises, basking sharks and sunfish.
Right photo - shows some good visibility in North Cornwall.
Britain also has several resident seal populations. As divers this is a great way to involve your children as they can be taken on snorkelling trips on some of the dive charter boats. Take them to the Scillies, the marine reserve of Lundy Island, or Seal Island near St Ives and have some fun with the seals.
The shipwrecks in the south west include one of the most famous dive sites of all time, the James Egan Layne, a World War Two American Liberty ship sunk by torpedo. Its open structure and surviving gun carriage wheels makes for great photography and there is plenty of marine life as you would expect of a wreck of this age. Conveniently nearby in Whitsand Bay is the Scylla, Britain's first artificial reef which is beginning to provide a home to the familiar marine life seen on most wrecks. Most of us don't often get to nose around a British warship, but here you have in intact, upright ship that can be explored inside and out.
Below is a diver on the wreck of the Hera Bridge, a four masted German sailing ship which sank off Gull Rock near Falmouth in 1914. To the right, a hand wheel is still in tact on the Hera.
One of the most popular offshore dive sites is the Eddystone reef, rocky pinnacles and gardens stuffed with mackerel, pollack and bass and an array of anemones and corals. Another not to miss is The Manacles off the Lizard peninsular, strewn with shipwrecks cluttering up the reefs and pinnacles, rocks and gullies. One of these wrecks is the Volnay, a large steamship which hit a mine in 1914, pictured below along with a pink sea fan living on it.
There are also many good shore dives around Cornwall and Devon. One of the most popular is Porthkerris Cove, a reef which descends to around 20m. The reef and rock walls are covered in marine life, jewel anemones, sponges and many fish species including pollack and wrasse.
Above, leopard spotted Goby and Devonshire Cup Coral at Porthkerris.
Once you have learned to dive you must put the Scilly Islands on your list of places to go. An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, excellent visibility, dramatic underwater scenery full of wrecks, reefs, walls and gullies full of gigantic cannon. As well as the aforementioned friendly resident grey seals.
It may not yet be well known, but it is possible to cage dive alongside sharks in Britain, from the port of Newquay. In fact this is a snorkel dive which is accessible to anyone.
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North Cornwall has some spectacular underwater scenery as shown on the left, along with some schooling bass, below.
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To the left is Logan's Gully, situated off Porthcurno Bay, just to the east of Land's End. Logan's Rock is covered in marine life in particular anemones.
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Marine species that you are often seen on any dive in the south west region: pouting, pollack, wrasse, bass, catsharks, scallops, plaice, conger eels, cuttlefish, starfish, crabs and lobster, corals, anemones, hydroids, sponges and worms.
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