Underwater boost to tourist industry

Published on Thursday 7 August 2003 01:00

LINDA Barker would be proud of such a makeover. In what is the ultimate in Changing Rooms-style transformations, a former council sewage works has been turned into a major tourist attraction and subsea exploration centre.

Ten years ago, An Aird water treatment building was dealing with the domestic waste from Fort William’s 10,000-strong population.

But over the last two years it has been converted into the 2 million Ocean Frontier attraction on the town’s waterfront, which Barker, the TV house designer, will officially open on 29 August.

By then, 1.4 million litres of water will have been pumped from Loch Linnhe and filtered into a giant Atlantic Reef pool to create an experience combining underwater research and development and tourism, all on dry land, making it the only centre of its kind in the world.

Barker said yesterday: "It’s rather a strange feeling for a change, being the one who has to wait to see the transformation. However, I hear they have turned something of an eyesore into a sight for sore eyes."

More than 30 jobs will be created at the centre, which will be the biggest tourist attraction in the area next to Ben Nevis and the ski slopes of Aonach Mor. Around 50,000 visitors are expected to come through the doors each year, boosting local tourism by 21,000 bed nights annually.

Ocean Frontier has been created by the Stenmar Group, a diving and undersea technology company, on land next to its existing underwater centre which is used to train commercial and sports divers and carry out research and development into underwater technology and equipment.

In the new centre, visitors will see underwater tools such as sonar and sub-surface communications being tested and be able to operate remotely operated vehicles used in the oil and fishing industries as well as by the military. It is the only place where novices can try a commercial deep-sea dive in a controlled environment.

For 150 visitors can also spend two hours beneath the surface in the three-man Russian submarine Morzh, a former research sub used for pipeline inspections. The submarine’s pilot, Alexander Molodyka, of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Moscow, has experience of diving submarines to a depth of 3,000 metres.

For the less adventurous the underwater experience can be seen through a 20-metre square viewing window, the largest in Scotland and custom made in Japan, or by crawling into a two-metre-wide Perspex bubble. Videos and hydrophones will allow onlookers to experience the same sights and sounds as the submariner.

The reef pool, five metres deep, will be filled with about 50 species of marine wildlife common to Loch Linnhe, including rays and eels. Around them will be exhibits to simulate the subsea environment off the west coast of Scotland - including an offshore oil pipeline and authentic shipwreck of the Kaye Louise, a former survey vessel which sank after hitting rocks in the loch in a winter storm.

In future it is hoped another wreck lying further out into Loch Linnhe will become part of the centre’s experience. The Stirling Castle, a former paddlesteamer which used to ferry passengers on the loch, sank in the 1800s and is lying in between 80 and 150 metres of water near the Corran Narrows.

The ship has been located by centre staff using sonar, and it is proposed to make field trips to the wreck site.

Don McGregor, the managing director of the Stenmar Group, said: "I don’t think anyone has ever made research and development a visitor attraction before.

"What is billed as live underwater theatre will, in many cases, be real research and commercial development. Sophisticated underwater tools will be tested right in front of visitors."