POLLACK ALLEY: 12-16mts

The dive

Pollack Alley is Waterworld's name for a stretch of the Inishtooskert shoreline in the Maharees, the island group off the tip of the Castlegregory sand spit in north Kerry. It is one of a dozen or so sites the centre publishes with the working depth built straight into the name, and it is the operator's label for one piece of an island's reef rather than a charted place name - so the centre is the primary and effectively the only source for it. Set confidence accordingly.

The dive as they describe it is a three-hundred-metre solid wall of kelp meeting a sandy bottom, where shoals of very large pollack hang waiting on the millions of sprat that run through the area. The centre says the pollack there are unusually tolerant of divers, close enough to reach out to if you are careful, and that the sand is a good place for skate and ray. The published range is 12 to 16 metres, which keeps the whole dive inside Open Water depth. It is the shallowest of the four sites the centre groups under Inishtooskert, alongside The Point at 18-22 m, The Gully at 8-20 m and The Ridge Holes at 10-22 m.

Logistics are the same as the rest of the island group. Waterworld run two boat dives a day, at 09:00 and 11:00, from Scraggane Pier at Fahamore, with the centre about 30 m from the pier and a 10 to 15 minute run out. They give visibility of about 40 m on the best days, 20 m on average and 7 m on bad ones, and water from 8 degrees C at the start of the dive season to 17 or 18 degrees in July, August and September. DUSAC found the Maharees ground fairly non-tidal, with only a small drift even at mid tide, and Scraggane's two slips easy to use except at very low water.

Two caveats on that non-tidal reading. NPWS, describing the same islands, records moderately strong currents between them, and the 1996 BioMar survey found tide-swept ground in the channels - the station in the sound between Illaunimmil and Illaunboe, about 800 m south-east of this pin, describes a tide-swept channel of coarse sand over cobbles with Laminaria saccharina, L. hyperborea and Saccorhiza polyschides on the larger boulders and a patchy red algal understorey, which is the same kelp-on-sand habitat the operator is describing here. Plan for some flow. And swell is what actually cancels a day in this island group.

• Three hundred metres of kelp wall meeting sand
• Shoals of very large pollack working the sprat
• Skate and ray on the sand
• Shallow enough to sit inside Open Water depth limits

Conditions

Cold Atlantic water on an offshore island group. Waterworld give visibility of about 40 m on the best days, around 20 m average and about 7 m on the worst, with water from 8 degrees C at the start of the season up to 17 or 18 degrees in July to September. Two boat dives a day from Scraggane Pier; DUSAC found only a small drift on the ground even at mid tide.

On current: The sources disagree and the conservative reading is the one to plan on. DUSAC describe the Maharees generally as fairly non-tidal, with only a small drift even at mid tide, and nothing the operator writes about this site mentions current. NPWS, however, records moderately strong currents between the islands, and the 1996 BioMar stations nearby describe tide-swept channels and current-swept cobble ground. The site runs along a wall rather than through a channel, so the swimming should be along it rather than with a stream - but expect some flow, and note that swell on the exposed faces is what actually cancels diving in this island group.

Best months: Jul, Aug, Sep