Under The Mediterranean Sea June 2022. Changes

I’m back in my summer world saying hi to the fish! All winter long I’ve been waiting for when the water was warm enough to go in. The way the water wraps around you as soon as you get in makes you forget about everything. Salt water on a hot humid day is sometimes the only thing that cools you down. Maybe that’s because Earth is 70% water and humans are too. We’re just drawn to water and if you can peek into life in the water a completely different world opens up. 

A world where that has no idea about cryptocurrency, she said, he said this, shopping, roads, cars, tv shows. A world that just is, unchanged for millions of years taking away evolution. But it is changing. 

I couldn’t find the rocks on the sea bed. I thought maybe that’s because the beach is wider than it used to be. Maybe I have to go further out. But I was looking in the right place. Looking above from the walk way I couldn’t see the darker shadows in the water where the rocks were. Looking back I hadn’t seen them for a few months but didn’t think anything about it. Every thing was covered in sand. So much sand the depth is shallower. I think the storms in January and March wiped everything out. When I cycled past I often wondered how the fish were doing in the storm waves. That world gone, the landscaped changed. When I realised I got upset. All winter long I’d been looking forward to snorkelling again. I don’t care it’s city beach. I just wanted to be in the water pooping my pants if a fish bigger than a mullet swam below. I felt like the one thing that had been keeping me going all winter gone in an instant.

If I went to the beach next door as far as I can tell from the path above there are rocks just off the shoreline. But those too have been reduced in the storms. To be honest I like the beach I go too. Even when it’s busy it’s nowhere near as busy as all the others. After a swim snorkel seeing if any fish were still there I found a little school cloud of big striped sea breams! That made me so so happy! Yet sad for the blennies and gobies that no longer had rocks to hunt on. Sad too the salemas have moved on as they prefer rocky or seagrass meadows. Seeing that there were still fish out there made me flip how I see it. The rocks are still there. Smashed up into tiny pieces further up the coast. The environment has changed from rocky bottom to a sandy bottom. Fish are still there, so just document how it changes, how the marine life adapts. It’s already adapted as some fish have remained and they’re a lot bigger than last year. No where near as many, but they’re there. Just see how the environment adapts. See what new fish say hi. I’m still too hesitant to get further out. I can swim, but I’m not a strong swimmer and if I can’t see the bottom I get scared. Tinier fish by the shore line I’m happy with! I’m kinda excited to see how the life returns and adapts to the new sandy sea bed.

I mentioned a few times last year that I felt I was the only person who knew about that tiny part of the world at the beach. So many people here dismiss that there could be anything apart from fishermen as it’s city beach. Only those that swim with goggles know it’s changed or know there are fish. It’s bitter sweet too that I feel like I have the only photos of that part of the world now changed. Grainy photos, but photos! And now more grainy photos on how the life adapts to a new environment. The visibility still isn’t too good and the time of the day I’ve been going doesn’t help with light so please excuse the quality while I get to know this camera again. I’ll be sharing this summer’s Under the Mediterranean Sea more often and on Instagram. My new thing in Instagram to is make reels. I made my first reel last week and I to my surprise enjoyed making it sharing my underwater world.

Thank you for stopping by!