Classic images of marine life in the waters around Orkney mark the 60th anniversary of Heriot-Watt University’s Scientific Diving Team, with stories of some of their underwater surveys in Scapa Flow and further afield – from horse mussel reefs and flame shell beds to seagrass meadows and kelp forests. Prof. Joanne Porter from their Stromness base is joined by Prof. Bill Sanderson from Edinburgh, and by Prof. Hamish Mair who spent his early years in Orkney.

The Diving Team has been working in Orkney since the start of the Flotta oil development in the 1970s, initially for monitoring and then widening out into a richly varied range of activities, from studying the life around the shipwrecks to regenerating areas of seabed for shellfish.

Historic photos from Hamish Mair
Photos from a recent ecological survery from Jo Porter
Photos from SULA Diving