Vervine

The scallop dredger Vervine, BA842, has been anchored overnight in the mouth of Kilchoan Bay a couple of times in the last week or so - this picture shows her at 11pm last Thursday night, though she was well away by the time The Diary shook a leg the next morning. The picture also shows how light it still was at that time - in fact, at this time of year, it's only dark during the night if there is a heavy overcast

We saw Vervine moored up in Tobermory harbour a week earlier when we went across in the RIB to inspect the cruise ship Black Watch (post here). Although she's registered in Ballantrae, she's a local boat and, even though she's over 40 years old, well-maintained.

Scallop dredging raises some quite strong feelings as the dredges do considerable damage to sea floor ecology. It's also a dangerous occupation: the Aquila, which sank with all hands off the north coast of Ardnamurchan back in July 2009, was dredging at the time she went down.