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Scuba Diving South Coast England, UK, Europe
Dive Site: Outer Mulberrys
Location: 50°44.70N; 00°42.12W
Description: Reef / harbour wall
Depth: 4 - 10 metres (12 - 30 feet)
Visibility: 5 - 10 metres (15 - 30 feet)
Rating: ****
The Mulberrys were built to use as temporary harbour walls during the D-Day landings but never made it as far as France. They are located about three miles from Pagham, near Bognor Regis and lie in an east-west direction covering a distance of about 45 metres (140 feet). They are made out of reinforced concrete that has gradually degraded over time, leaving sharp metal spikes protruding from them in places that would easily puncture a stab or drysuit so make sure your buoyancy is under control.
The structure of the Mulberrys is home to a vast amount of marine life. There is a shoal of hundreds of bib that make the area its home as well as large numbers of pollack, pouting and wrasse. If you look more carefully you can find sea scorpions perched on the wreckage, camouflaged against the background. There are also cuttlefish that tend to swim off hurriedly with tentacles in the air if disturbed by a diver, but if you take it slowly and try not to look like too much of a threat they will gradually calm down and allow you to get close to them. We also saw a lobster that was spending time away from its lair, scuttling out to collect food before heading back to safety and in the sand close by there were a few spider crabs. Apparently there are a couple of conger eels that live among the Mullberrys, but they are diver-shy, so are not often spotted.
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Reader Reviews:
My first ever boat dive after passing my PADI open water. Great dive, lots of sealife, used Dave from Dive Eclipse - great skipper, great boat. Would recommend this dive site to new and experienced divers, vis approx 6m - 10m on a good day.
Richard Welch
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Fantastic vis on site. Loads of shoals of bib and we even managed to spot one of the elusive conger eels hiding in its lair! A really good dive site - possibly my best UK dive!
Chris Taylor
An excellent site with always plenty to see; very good for night diving when the lobsters and congers are out and about. The site is linked by rope to a landing craft (approx 100m) and a cuckoo rescue craft (approx
200m) - this nature trail takes about 35-40 mins for a complete circuit.
Steve Frampton
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