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Tyne
and Wear is a small county in North East England. It's
bounded by the North Sea on the east. Tyne and Wear diving is
varied and offers something for all tastes. The underwater life
is abundant and the dive sites go from shallow to deep with some
nice wrecks.
Always dive according to your level of training.
Never enter the water without checking with the local dive center
for safety, additional information, level required for each dive
site and without being accompanied by a professional. All the
information provided is purely informative for our readers and
shouldn't be used as is to plan your immersion.
Tyne and wear diving offers a lot of shallow
and interesting sites. Off the coast in the North Sea there are
many opportunities for shore dives. There are interesting reefs
and nice drift dives. However, although a good part of the dive
sites are shallow special care must be taken because many are
exposed and are subject to strong currents.
Beadnell has some shallow and sheltered shore
diving sites like Lady hole which are easy dives.
There are reefs densely covered in kelp with gullies and terraces.
You can dive on the wreckage of MV Yewglen which
went down in 1960. There's plenty of marine life around this wreck.
Lots of kelp, dead mans fingers and anemones are to be seen on
this site. The visibility usually exceeds 8 metres
(26 feet) except in the Spring when it diminishaes a little.
St Mary's Island and the area around it are a
marine reserve. It's just off the coast, north of Whitley Bay.
There are some small reefs and gullies and the depth doesn't go
beyond 10 metres (33 feet).
In summer the visibility may well reach 12 metres
(36 feet). The marine life is typical of the North Sea and you
will encounter crabs, gobbies, blennies, wrasse and pollock
just to name a few.
There's are the remains of a little steamer which went down due
to bad weather late 19th century. She is well broken with the
debris scattered and the depth around her isn't more than 8 metres
(26 feet).
Howick has several reefs running parallel to
the shore. There's a narrow gulley separating the beach from the
sea which you can follow to get to the first reef. The reef tops
are covered in kelp and they're quite close to each other, about
40 metres (131 feet) between each. Doctor's House is a site in
Howick which is good for beginners and you can see the wreckage
of the
HMS GII submarine that went down in 1918.
Big Green Carr in St. Abbs is a shallow dive
of about 3 - 17 metres (10 - 55 feet). It's composed of a small
group of rocks which all have a linking submarine ridge. It's
important to time your entries and exits as the entry and exit
for all the rocks is at the harbour. Do not attempt diving when
the barriers are up as there could be a lot of swell. There's
lots of kelp, pollack and pipefish.
On the seaward side of the Big Green Carr is the "amphitheatre".
It has this name because it's a rock in the shape of a semicircle
that rises to the surface from the sandy bottom. The marine life
here is plentiful and includes lots of anemones, lots
of corals and lobsters. The visibility
is usually 10 metres (30 feet).
Aclivity Wreck is located south about 1½ miles
(2.4 km) off Crasteof Beadnell. It's a motor tanker that sunk
in 1952 and is parallel to the shore. It's pretty intact at the
time of writing. Some of the fish life around the wreck are
lobsters, crabs and cod.
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