SWIM FOR YOUR LIFE

Report by Charlotte Boan

A BRITISH diver, who was feared dead after going missing on a dive in the North Sea, swam nearly four miles to shore in harsh conditions to save himself. John Mallard, 62, had been diving with his son and a friend near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, in August when he was swept out by strong currents. A commercial diver, Mallard had been diving for lobsters when he became separated from his buddies at the surface. A sea and air operation was launched just after 7pm on Friday after the diver’s son raised the alarm. The four-hour search failed to locate him and it was feared that he had not survived. However, Mallard managed to swim ashore and knock on the door of a house in Inverbervie around midnight on Friday.

‘I really thought I was going to die,’ Mallard said. ‘I was trying to get back to the harbour where I started my dive, but the tide took me away. There was no chance of going ashore because of the cliffs and all I could do was swim against the tide.’ Mallard said that the conditions got progressively worse at the surface as it started to get dark, with high swells and strong currents. ‘I couldn’t see anything,’ he said. ‘I fi lled my jacket with air and swam for it. The whole time I was worried that my son hadn’t made it and I thought to myself that I had to keep going and make it back because my daughter would be left with no one – it was thoughts of my family that kept me going.’ Mallard, from Arbroath in Scotland, returned home late on Friday night. He suffered no ill effects from the swim.

MOVING INTO FOCUS-ON

PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM 17 countries around the world entered this year’s International Focus-on Competition, organised by the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP). Results of the second annual BSoUP international underwater photography competition were judged by 70 members at an August meeting at London’s Imperial College. The winner, with 48 points, was Martin Tomcyk from the Slovak Republic for his split shot of a freshwater toad taken in Gader Valley lake near his home. Second and third places went to British photographers Ralph Mortimore and Alex Mustard respectively for their shots of a bottlenose dolphin and a lionfi sh. Tomcyk, 36, has been diving since 1999 and has won a number of awards for his shot

of a toad, including fi rst prize at the SUBIOS underwater image festival held in the Seychelles. Other BSoUP International Focus-on runners-up included Britons Len Deely and Steve Jones, Australian Peter Mooney, Polish photographer Andrzej Czyzyk, Patrick Weir from the Cayman Islands and Eric Hanauer from the USA. For more information, see www.bsoup.org.

Main photograph: a lemon shark by Peter Mooney 1 bottlenose dolphin on the Giannis D by Ralph Mortimore 2 lionfi sh by Alex Mustard 3 Carnatic wreck by Andrzej Czyzyk 4 the winning shot of a toad by Martin Tomcyk 5 silky shark and pilotfi sh Len Deeley 6 school of snappers at Ras Mohammed by Steve Jones

TWIN REEFS AT GOZOTWIN REEFS AT GOZO TWO DECOMMISSIONED passenger ferries have been sunk as artifi cial reefs for divers off the Maltese Island of Gozo as part of a European Union funded project to boost tourism in the area. The two vessels, MV Karwela and the MV Comino Land, sank upright within 50m of each other at a depth of 36m. It took more than seven hours for the 56m-long MV Karwela and 35m-long MV Comino Land to sink at Ix-Xatt I-Ahmar, Gozo. Airfi lled buoyancy tanks were used to ensure both ships settled upright on the sea bed, around 20m from the shore. Both wrecks had to be cleaned of fuel before the sinking and paint was stripped from the MV Comino Land to help promote the growth of micro algae. ‘Initially I was a bit concerned about the Comino Land, because it plunged into the sea on its side,’ said diving representative for the Gozo Tourism Association, Mark Busuttil. ‘The visibility was not very good when I dived on Saturday evening but from what I could feel, it’s perfect.’ It is hoped that the two new reefs will ease diver congestion on some of the other popular wreck sites in the area, such as the Dwejra and Marsalforn. The sheltered area was chosen for its lack of natural attractions.

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