DIVERS from a Halesowen scuba club swapped a local swimming pool to take a dip with penguins on the English Riviera.

The scuba divers from the Black Country Divers, who normally train at Halesowen Swimming Pool, shared Torquay Zoo’s giant tank with the penguins.

Dan Higgins, who is diving officer for Black Country Divers, and said: “It was great fun, a novel experience.”

Dan, an intensive care charge nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, added: “I’ve not dived with penguins before and it was something I have always wanted to do.

“We fed them small sprats under water and they darted and chased about, really quite curious. It was damn good fun.

“Four of us went, two dived in the morning for 45 minutes and two of us in the afternoon for 45 minutes.”

Torquay Zoo’s penguin enclosure was created by Living Coasts and includes Penguin Beach which has been designed to look like coastal habitats near Cape Town in South Africa where its African penguins originate and live in large colonies.

The zoo’s penguins are all free roaming and can explore visitor boardwalks using their own ‘penguin crossing’.

Black Country Divers is an established BSAC branch with about 20 members and they meet on Wednesday evenings at Halesowen Swimming Pool.

For more information about the group visit www.blackcountrydivers.org.uk.