After the very strong cold winds of the last few days the weather eased today and I was able to clean the underwater camera. The filamentous algae is now growing quickly and the camera has to be cleaned at least every two weeks or we lose the picture! The pontoon housing the camera is now very colourful with assorted algae, sponges and other organisms. However, still no shore crabs or gobies to be seen along the edge of the Fleet channel. The only fish seen was one grey mullet. The underwater visibility was still only moderate. It typically takes 2-3 days for all the sediment to come out of the water column after a period of very strong winds.

The water temperature was 8.5C. The water is normally at its coldest in mid-February, but this year there is still no sign of the water starting to warm in late-March. Look at the CMMP pages on the website for the full plot of water temperature.

Above the water, there were a number of oystercatchers along the Fleet foreshore, and the dandelions are in full flower on the grassy area on Chesil Beach.