Comino Divesites - Santa Maria Caves

Santa Maria Caves is one of the most visited dive sites. There is a small cove where your boat will set anchor; take a bearing for the far corner of the cove. That is the entrance to the first cave you can see from land as tourist boats enter the cave. Once off the boat you can descend to the sandy sea bed and feed the sea bream as they come 30 to 40 at a time to grab bread.

Moving on from the feeding frenzy, take your bearing across the cove, follow the cave to the end and to the left, at two metres, the tunnel branches off into a small bell chamber big enough for four divers to go in and see the immense bright sapphire blue from the ocean outside. Heading back out of the cave keeping to the left under the arch and back out to the sea, keep following the wall around five metres, and you will enter the main cave entrance. From here the cave splits into a Y shape. Keeping right brings you back out, keeping left takes you deeper in. Following to the left you come to a ledge.
As you rise to the top you notice the route off to the right. Keep to the left, and ascending you will surface in an air chamber inside the cave where you can climb out. Take a moment to take in the view and descend again, heading off the ledge and back down to the cave floor. You will notice sunlight, and not far away is the exit to the cave. Heading out into the open to your left there will be a big overhang.

You will see the arch, swim through a ZORO ‘Z’; once through ZORO you will see some boulders below at 15-18 metres. Swim back around the reef to your right. Following the wall around you re-enter the cave staying on the right side. Once inside you come to a narrow passage. Swim through this, it looks tight but you can pass with twins, once out and the whole group has reunited outside, swim straight out and you should find yourself underneath your boat. If caves are not your thing you can stay outside on the reef. It is fantastic for kids’ snorkelling, and this site has been used as the
location for many films in the past. As for marine life you’re sure to see sea bream, also stingrays down on the sand and octopie morays along with passing amberjacks.

HMS Stubborn S-Class Sub.

 

HMS Stubborn was an S-class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She started life on 10 September 1941 Cammell Laird Shipyard (Birkenhead, U.K.) and launched on 11 November 1942. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Stubborn. While on patrol in the Bay of Biscay, she fired torpedoes at a group of three German submarines (U-180, U-518, U-530) escorted by two destroyers. The torpedoes however missed their targets and the attack was not observed by the Germans. The two escorts were identified by Stubborn as Narvik-class destroyers. The German submarines were returning from patrol and were bound for Bordeaux.

Stubborn also made an unsuccessful attack on a German convoy off the Follafjord, west of Namsos, Norway, and on 11 February 1944, she sank the German merchant Makki Faulbaum and torpedoed and damaged the German merchant Felix D. some 25 miles north-west of Namsos, Norway. She later made an unsuccessful attack on a German convoy of five ships off the Folda Fjord, Norway. Stubborn fired six torpedoes but none found their target. Stubborn was heavily damaged by the German escort ships and had to be towed home, with her crew acting as human "balance weights" to maintain the submarine on an even keel when her after hydroplanes were jammed "hard-a-dive”. Stubborn was transferred, arriving in mid 1945, but had a distinguished career there before the war ended. She sank the Japanese patrol vessel Patrol Boat No.2 (the former destroyer Nadakaze) in the Java Sea. The survivors were shot in the water. She went on to sink a Japanese sailing vessel and an unidentified small Japanese vessel. Stubborn survived the Second World War and was sunk on 30 April 1946 as an ASDIC target off MALTA

This boat dive is about 30minutes out from st, Pauls bay

Now sitting on a sand bed at 57 meters this is a technical diver due to depth and time. Descending down the shot line on a good day at 30 meters the outline of the sub should come into view through the crystal clear waters, once on the wreck you will notice it has a slight list.

There are 2 hatches on the forward deck and 1 on the coning tower is open...DO not enter!. The wreck itself is perfectly intact, conning tower, torpedo tubes and propellers. For the photographer even at this depth you can still get great shots. Marine life is limited due to open sea and  at depth some divers do report large shoals of jack/ tuna and sea bream.

SS Polyneien (Ocean liner)

 

 

 

The shipping side of the government-owned 'Messageries Nationales' was split in 1852 under the name 'Compagnie des Services Maritimes des Messageries Nationales' and by 1857 it owned 57 ships. In 1871, the company became 'Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes'. In 1904 the fleets of Compagnie Francaise de l'Est Asiatique and Compagnie Nationale de Navigation were taken over.

Polynesien SS was French Ocean passenger(243 people) steamer of 6,373grt that was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UC-22 when 7 miles off Grand Harnour , Valetta, Malta on the 10th August 1918 when on route from Marseille & Bizerta for Salonica. 

Built in 1890, the passenger Ocean liner Le Polynesian. with a length of 152 meters 15 meters high 10 meters wide her size is unimaginable till you see her.

Her depth has protected Le Polynesien’s treasures from plunderers, unlike those of more shallow wrecks. Inside you can still find a lot of china and other objects that bear witness to the times when the steamship operated first as a cruise liner and later as an armed troop transport,Now, huge decks lie open to divers who enter the wreck through various holes and hatches.

Everywhere, covered in silt, marine growth and shells, are artefacts that remind us of the days when the decks were filled with cruise guests and, later, soldiers. Here lies a plate; there a serving tray that was perhaps held up by a waiter, laden with drinks for the passengers. 

I remember one dive i had on her the visibility was great but we had strong current, i looked down and i could see the shot line curled up on the anchor and looking from 36 meter i cant believe we missed the wreck,until we got to 45 meters and realized i was looking at the porthole,sitting on the mid deck at 56 meters we head off to the stern and drop down inside the wreck post of all the walls have gone making it easier to swim through,the deck below was filled with light filtered through various openings. dropping deeper into the wreck you can still find lots of artifact bottles of perfume or bottle of red wine but she is littered with 3 types of plates so with markings and some are just plain white and then you have the ship markings on the plate rim.

still with the deck guns fitted aiming slightly up this time they didnt help save here, the prop is the jaw dropping feature and it just make you feel so small... with the shallow end of the wreck at 55 meters the prop being the deepest at 70 meters.

HMS HELISPONT

She was a robust ship built for deep sea rescue paddle wheeled steamer tug, and was built in 1910 in Hull, first she started work in Queenstown Ireland till early 1920s, were she was sent then to Malta were she worked around the island till  the night of 6th april 1942, during air raid on the harbour she was hit  by Italian bombers, she was salvaged and towed out of the harbour and scuttled.

She was re-discovered in 1999 and  She is a victim of the intense bombing Hellespont is a relatively recently discovered wreck off the Grand Harbour,the bow section about 12-15 meters is missing possible still in the harbour or just totally destroyed but who knows, i have dived around the wreck and not found it yet!
She sit perfectly upright, and the damage can been seen as you swim over her, with cables hanging from her with caution you can get down inside her and see the boilers and hatches and see the piston rods, she is just a fabulous wreck to dive on,

With her gaf hook on the main deck, hatches still in tact the stern section still has live ammo and the sea bed littered with live ammo its just one of my favorite dive sites portholes still were they should be not on peoples walls

This is entry level technical dive due to her depth and if visiting Malta this is one wreck you don't want to miss out on.

P29 Patrol Boat

P29 Minesweeper started life on cold October morning of 1969 as sheet steel took formation over the next few months, then on 22nd may 1970 she was launched and became known to the Germany navy as ‘boltenhagen’ (GS09),she was kondor I-class  mine sweeper for the east Germany navy until unification of east and west Germany became one, she was decommissioned in June 1996 till she was bought by Malta in July 1997 and re-named P29.

She was then used to patrol costal water around malta with immigration and smuggling at the top of their list of daily patrols, till she was then decommissioned in 2004, And she was bought by Malta tourism authority in 2005,with plans to turn her into an artificial reef for divers which took place on 14th August 2007 after she was cleaned from all marine pollutants and oils.

Now sitting just off the coast of cirkewwa port at a depth of 33 meters and sitting up-right, once in the water at the training area, swim to the ledge which is around 5/6 meters deep, you should see the drop off to 22/25 meters now take a bearing 320.c and follow out for aprox 110/120 meters, watch out for strong currents, now you should be on the stern, swimming towards the bow a lot of the doors have been removed to make it easier to enter the wreck, it’s a great wreck for penetration,  and for beginner’s to learn more about deep wrecks and what’s involved, penetration recommended to do with guide and for more experienced divers due to depth and overhead environment.

Now on the bow a deck gun has been made and fitted by local divers which is great for u/w photos as we leave the deck gun heading back up to the bridge you can enter with care as its tight but you can swim round it easily then move a bit shallower to the crow nest and here it is normally full of squid/calamari eggs hanging in pearl white strings like pearl necklaces, staying at this level around 17 meters you can start heading back to land, as you swim across the exhaust stacks watching other divers swimming onto her, now you have left her behind you think about what you have seen and its full of marine life, from eagle rays, groupers to barracuda swimming around her hull while upon the ship morays sticking their heads out of holes and on the hand railings and decks can be found covered in  brightly colourful Nudibranchs of all types sizes and patterns’ they are just to beautiful to take photos of.

Living in a Fish Bowl

World Record Diving Malta took on a Finathon Challenge this November in order to raise funds for Project Aware, a non profit organisation dedicated to saving our oceans. The Finathon Malta Challenge for 2015 saw WRDMalta team member Sean McGahern stay submerged in a tank with sharks, rays and other species over a number of days in order to raise awareness about shark conservation and to try and change people’s misconception about sharks, who are in fact a misunderstood species. The event took place at the Malta National Aquarium in Tank number 15.

During the months building up to the Finathon Challenge, Sean and the team organised a number of overnight training dives in order to become comfortable with the set up, familiar with the species inside the tank and to see how these would actually react to having Sean present inside their home. Once confident, the Finathon Challenge was confirmed both by World Record Diving Malta as well as by the Malta National Aquarium and the date was set for the 4^th of November.

The morning of the event the team arrived at the Aquarium bright and early to start setting up. The WRDMalta team, assisted by the Adventure Diving Malta & Malta National Aquarium team were present on standby throughout this event in order to assist and constantly monitor Sean during his progress. All the equipment such as cylinders, spare regulators, safety diver kit, oxygen tank etc were set up whilst Sean was assisted to slip into his O’Three undersuit and O’Three drysuit (sponsored by O’Three Drysuits Ltd, UK). Before zipping up, one quick break downstairs to the tank viewing window for a short interview and then, game time! At 9.45am Sean was assisted into his Diamond side-mount harness (sponsored by Dare to Dive) and dry-gloves whilst standing in the landing pool above the viewing window. Hood on, side mount cylinders in place, dive computers and mask ok, it was time for Sean to slide off the ledge, (where the zebra shark was waiting to welcome him) and make his descent down to the sand patch inside Tank 15. Aquarium visitors, staff members, team members and media personnel immediately greeted Sean from the viewing window. When asked how he felt once he was in the tank, Sean’s reply was ‘Now I know what a fish living in a bowl feels like’.

The operational side of the challenge ran from the area above Tank 15. Here, the Malta National Aquarium provided the team with bathrooms, a compressor room, a small office as well as a section dedicated to storing Sean’s back up equipment, Sean’s drinks, etc. The team was able to monitor Sean both from the viewing window downstairs as well as from the ‘office’ upstairs via the underwater CCTV system which was placed inside the tank and also streamed live online. Sean was able to communicate to the team using wet notes to write on (sponsored by Dare to Dive), which he used not only to advise the team on how he is feeling or what he requires, but also to ‘talk’ to the aquarium visitors and answer their questions. Support team communication to and from both the viewing station downstairs and upstairs was done via walkie talkies. Whenever Sean asked for something, example a drink, the support team member downstairs would radio up to the team member upstairs, who in turn would send down Sean’s requested item using a weighted net bag, a system that worked rather smoothly.

The event ran over 5 days during the operational hours of the Malta National Aquarium (10am to 6pm). Although the original intention was to spend 24/7 inside the tank with the possibility of setting a new world record for the longest scuba dive in a controlled environment, this idea was soon put to one side due to the fact that Sean did encounter a few problems at the start of the dive and did need to surface, not to mention also the fact that the black tip sharks were refusing to eat with Sean inside the tank.

Although having a slight fear of sharks himself, as well as not so comfortable with the size of the 5 eels inside the tank, Sean soon bonded with these species and did in fact even snuggle up with some of them at times. Surprisingly enough, the species to show the most “aggression” towards Sean, were the French Angelfish who seemed to be having a great time nipping at Sean’s mask and hood, puncturing holes in his suit and at one point even biting a chunk out of his upper lip. His reaction was rather amusing to the spectators to say the least, especially since the French Angelfish did draw blood which made Sean slightly paranoid, being in a tank with sharks. However, we are proud to say that the sharks had absolutely no reaction to this and continued to happily swim along, pretty much ignoring Sean.

To pass the time, Sean answered questions directed at him by the aquarium visitors, played OXO on the tank window with kids as well as charades and other games. Moreover, on day 3, Sean came to realise that there were a number of shark teeth buried in the sand beneath him, following which Sean spent quite a few hours a day on a treasure hunt, collecting different shapes and sizes of teeth from the various species within the tank. These have now been passed on to Greg Nowell from Sharklab-Malta to determine which tooth belongs to which species . These will hopefully soon be available on display at the Malta National Aquarium.

Sharklab-Malta worked closely with WRDMalta on this event and organised various awareness activities regarding the various types of shark species and discussing the work that they do around the Maltese islands. Project Aware also featured with a number of educational videos about how we can help protect our oceans shown throughout the event . To date, WRDMalta & Finathon Malta have managed to raise €600.00 through this event which was donated directly to www.finathon.org/Finathon-Malta. This page will continue to run until the end of month and we do encourage you to keep on donating to help protect vanishing shark species!

When asking Sean how he felt about the outcome of the challenge his reply was: “I had such a great time interacting with the public, seeing their faces light up once they realised that I was in fact a real diver and not just a dummy, and watching the kids, (j)awestruck by what they were seeing was absolutely fantastic. Communication was obviously limited being inside a tank but I am pretty sure that I interacted with quite a variety of different nationalities which is great – people will go back to their countries and mention Finathon Malta and what the challenge was all about and in turn further raise awareness about shark conservation. Needless to say, watching the teams’ (WRDMalta, Adventure Diving Malta, Sharklab-Malta as well as the team from the aquarium) attempt to keep me amused was rather entertaining in itself – so definitely a big thank you goes out to all those who were involved!! The feedback from the public about my Finathon Challenge has been tremendous. Do I feel like I have accomplished something? Definitely! Will I do it again? Time will tell J.

Everyone at WRDMalta is thrilled to have helped raise funds for Project Aware whilst educating people about the vanishing shark species and raising awareness about shark finning, by catch and overfishing and promoting shark conservation both to children and adults alike. We would like to say a massive thank you to the Malta National Aquarium for their help and support throughout – without them this event would not have been possible. A huge shout out also goes to Sharklab-Malta and Project Aware for their constant hard work as well as to our main sponsors Adventure Diving Malta, O’Three Drysuits Ltd, Dare to Dive, Scuba Essentials Malta and Innobeam International for your kind help. Finally, thank you to all those who donated towards Finathon Malta 2015, whether via the donation link (www.finathon.org/Finathon-Malta, the donation box, the raffle or directly to a team member, you have all helped make a difference for sharks!

Show your support - Adopt a Shark!

World Record Diving Malta will be supported by Sharklab-Malta during our upcoming Finathon Challenge. Sharklab-Malta is a local NGO dedicated to research, education and raising awareness about all Elasmobranch around the Maltese islands. WRDMalta would like to promote Sharklab-Malta's 'Adopt a Shark' campaign. 

The sharks available for adoption have all been recovered as fertilised eggs from their mothers landed by fishermen at the main Maltese wholesale fish market. In the past these eggs were simply thrown into the waste bins, but now they have a chance to survive and with your support, Sharklab-Malta aim to support their development and release them back to where they belong. The two Oviparous (egg-laying) species which can be adopted are Smallerspotted Catsharks (Scyliorhinus canicula) and Nursehounds (Scyliorhinus stellaris).

The “Adopt a Shark” campaign is part of the “Oviparous species Recovery and Release Program”, which is coordinated by Sharklab-Malta and supported by the Malta National Aquarium. This campaign is focussed on education and will also help to raise funds for the running of this campaign and to enable Sharklab-Malta to undertake further research.

So What Happens When You “Adopt a Shark”?

1. Upon receiving your completed adoption form and payment of €25, Sharklab-Malta will send you the adoption pack, which includes details of the recovery and release program and information about the species you have chosen to adopt.

2. After approximately 6 months you will receive a picture of the species you adopted and your very own shark eggcase, just like the one your shark will have hatched from!!

3. And finally you will be personally invited to witness the release of sharks back where they belong. 

Visit:
http://www.sharklab-malta.org/images/Sharklab/Sharklab/adopt-a-shark.pdf to adopt a shark today! Simply fill out the form and return it to Sharklab-Malta and be part of making a difference!