Under Water

Under Water

Parent & Teacher Guidance
Under Water

This article is about something colourless, but the content is as colourful and entertaining as usual. There is enough in this issue to satisfy your thirst for information! 

71% of the Earth is covered by water and 96.5% of that is sea. You can even find rivers and lakes under the sea! 

Can you think of different bodies of water? 

There are many across the world, from the sea to reservoirs, from rivers to wetlands, from lakes to canals. 

Can you think of examples of these here in Wales? 

Have you heard of these? 

  • CaswellBay – A small bay on the Gower Peninsula which is a site of special scientific interest  
  • Llyn Tegid – Lake nearBala 
  • LlangollenCanal – Canal linking Llangollen and Nantwich in Cheshire. The canal is 44 miles long. 
  • RiverTywi – 75 miles of magnificent river running through Carmarthenshire 
  • Llyn ClywedogReservoir – This reservoir is a man-made lake near Llanidloes. Its area is the same size as 230 football pitches! 

You're probably familiar with what goes on above the water... sailing boats, windsurfing or rowing, but do you know what's going on under the water? 

There are loads of treasure under the water, and no, pirates’ treasure sea is not the only treasure you can see there! 

Why not read about a park full of statues, the legends of Wales or the city discovered 1200 years after it was submerged? 

Glossary
Bay
A bay is a part of the sea where the land turns inwards.
Canal
A canal is a place that has been built to allow boats or vessels to go inland.
Lake
A lake is a fairly large body of water that moves slowly and lies in a basin in the land.
Reservoir
A large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply.
River
A large natural flow of water flowing into the sea, a lake or another river.
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Underwater Sculpture Park in Grenada, the Caribbean

Underwater Sculpture Park

The first ever underwater sculpture park was created in the Caribbean Sea in 2006. The Molinere Bay park was designed by Briton Jason deCaires Taylor. This park is between about 3 and 5 metres under the water so to reach it you have to scuba dive or go on a boat with a glass floor. 

It has a collection of around 75 concrete statues, most of which are of local residents. The statues have been placed over 800 square metres of the seabed. You can see statues of 26 children holding hands, a man riding a bicycle and a man sitting at a desk writing using a typewriter. 

Jason deCaires Taylor not only intended to create something that would look good but he was also very keen to create something that would help conservation efforts in the area. The statues were located in a place that would help protect the surrounding reefs and help maintain the health of the area's ecosystem. 

This site is now listed as one of the world's 25 wonders according to the National Geographic.

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Hockey… under water!

It's fast!... It's exciting!... It's wet!... It's a good way to keep fit... What is it? 

Underwater hockey! 

Playing hocky under water is quite similar to playing hockey on a field, except that the players play in water! 

 

The teams

You need two teams with ten members in each team. Six members play at a time, with four being substituted every now and then. 

The players have to wear special gloves, mask, snorkel, cap and special fins. 

 

The equipment

  • The games is played with: quite a short stick - about 0.3 metres long  
    a heavy puck  
    a goal - about 3 metres wide 

 

How to play? 

  • Both teams have to get into the swimming pool and stay near the wall, behind their goal. 
  • The referee places a puck at the bottom of the swimming pool - in the middle of the pool. 
  • Then, when the referee whistles everyone must dive to the bottom of the pool.  
  • Then, using the small stick, one of the team has to hit the puck. They have to pass it to other team members until one of them can shoot at the goal.  
  • Members of the other team have to try to win the puck back and move it in the direction of the other goal. 
  • You have to play for about 10-15 minutes each way. 

Playing as a team is very important because everyone, in turn, has to swim up and lift their head out of the water in order to take a breath! 

The team that scores the most goals wins. 

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Diary entry
21 May 1961

Remember Tryweryn 

It’s very quiet here. Everything is ready and tomorrow the cart will come and move our things to a new home – but we don't want to go. I don't want to go. The children don't want to go and the people of the village don't want to go. But we have to go because the people of Liverpool want water!

Everything has closed. Village life is finished. It's painful! It's too painful! We've protested. We've been to Liverpool protesting but the people of Liverpool don't want to know – because they want water.

And now, here I am in the small room packing everything – because I'm going to a new home tomorrow, but I don't want to go! In this room my children have eaten... and played. This is where we have lived as a family – happy, wonderful days! But no more!

The big machines make a terrible noise going up and down the road. I feel scared and nervous – and terribly sad because tomorrow this home will be a heap of stones on the ground. And then, soon, the water will come and our little village – our beloved village – will be under water – because the people of Liverpool want water ...

Good night. No, not “Good night” but “Goodbye!”

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Heracleion
City name:
Heracleion.
Submerged:
Approximately 1200 years ago.
Discovered:
In the year 2000 by French archaeologists.
Location:
30 feet underwater in the Mediterranean Sea.
Before being submerged:
A number of experts believe there is enough evidence to prove that Heracleion had been a city full of excitement and buzz before being submerged. They also believe that it was an important port in Egypt at the time.
Artefacts:
The archaeologists discovered some very important things there: Statues of the Pharaoh. Pieces of art. Coins made of gold, lead and bronze. A number of ships
How was the city submerged?
A number of experts have now visited the location and say it is impossible to know for sure how the city was submerged but they believe it was inundated after a huge earthquake.
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Letter
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Letter
Message in a bottle washed up on a beach.

Tŷ Pella,
Porth Madryn,
Patagonia,
South America

16/04/1996

Dear Friend,

Excellent! If you are reading this letter, my plan has succeeded! I put the letter safely in a bottle and threw it into the Atlantic waves on my birthday.  

My name is Maria Gonzalez Jones and I live in the town of Porth Madryn on the coast of Patagonia. I go to school here in town and speak Welsh and Spanish. 

It may be difficult for you to believe, but my great grandmother was from South Wales. That is how our family still speaks Welsh. She came across the sea here to South America in 1865 with Michael D. Jones and the first migrants who came here to Patagonia in search of a new life. They sailed in a boat from Liverpool. She was twenty years old when she came here with her uncle and aunt. Her parents decided not to venture across the waves. Patagonia was too far for them, apparently. 

I enjoy living here in Porth Madryn. It's a busy seaside town and I love going for a walk down to the seaside with friends in the summer. One day, I hope to go to college to learn to be a teacher, like Mam. 

Don’t forget to send me a reply! I love meeting new people! 

Lots of love from your new friend, 

Maria x 

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Interactive
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Song / poem
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Song / poem
The Bells of Cantre’r Gwaelod

There lies beneath the ocean
a city out of sight
that heard the bells of churches
calling the dead of night,
and could the poor watchman
with all his heart forsee
that the bells of Cantre’r Gwaelod
would be lost beneath the sea?

In the gallop of white horses,
in the wave’s almighty roar,
when all the seagulls founder
and fail to find the shore,
when the deep comes crashing over,
when the lightning finds the quay,
the bells of Cantre’r Gwaelod
fall silent in the sea.

But when the breeze is peaceful
and all the waves are still
and when the day is dying
over the distant hill,
I hear the sound of singing,
and the music is set free
when the bells of Cantre’r Gwaelod
are heard beneath the sea.

O! sing the chimes of childhood
to me till the day I die,
their melodies rekindle
the years that have passed me by,
and always I’ll remember
the bells that sing to me,
the bells of Cantre’r Gwaelod
calling beneath the sea.

Adaption: Tudur Dylan Jones
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Famous Engineer
Name:
William Low
Date of Birth:
1814
Place of birth:
Scotland
Lived:
Moved to live in Wrexham in the 1840's.
Date of death:
1886
Occupation:
Railway Engineer
Company name:
The Channel Tunnel Company
Description:
Low was the first man to try to make a tunnel between England and France. He bought land near Dover and Calais and began making the tunnel near Dover in 1870. By 1881, about 1,000 feet of the tunnel had been finished near Dover but the work had to be stopped because some people were worried that the French would use the tunnel to attack Britain.
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Slideshow

Tales from Wales

Llyn y Fan Fach 

This is where the legend of the Lady of the Lake occurred. According to legend, a farm worker had asked the Lady of the Lake to marry him. She agreed on condition that he would not hit her three times. Unfortunately, he did hit her three times and so she returned to the lake with all the animals.

Llyn Tegid 

Legend has it that a monster called Tegi lives in the depths of the lake near Bala. 

The Conwy Valley Afanc 

As the story goes, a huge creature knows as an afanc lived near Betws y Coed. Because the afanc was so big it caused the lake to overflow. The local residents had to ask a girl called Elen to sing to him until he fell asleep. The residents managed to move him to Llyn Glaslyn and no-one ever saw the afanc again.

Cantre’r Gwaelod 

Centuries ago, a man called Seithennyn is said to have had the job of looking after the sea-wall to ensure that the sea would not flow into Caer Gwyddno. One night, Seithennyn went to a party and forgot to close the gate but unfortunately the sea flowed in and Cantre’r Gwaelod was submerged.