'Mesmerising' creatures of the underwater world can be seen in these revealing photos by diving photographer Ross McLaren, taken at Fairlie Quay and Wee Cumbrae.
Ross, who hails from Kilwinning, captures colourful images of underwater life in Scotland's seas and lochs, exploring the depths.
The chemistry teacher has undertaken hundreds of scuba-dives off the coast of Scotland, capturing thousands of photos of marine life, and his latest photos from Fairlie Quay and Wee Cumbrae show a microcosm of the diverse range and variety of sea creatures which live in our oceans.
Eye-catching sights include the Ophiothrix fragilis - Brittle Stars. Ross said: "The seabed beneath the pier at Fairlie is like a moving carpet of these mesmerising creatures."
Other highlights include the Necora puber, the Velvet Swimming Crab, and the Chirolophis ascanii- a Blenny fish, spotted off the shore at Wee Cumbrae.
Ross regularly likes to dive at Portencross and Fairlie Quay.
He said: "The area of the seabed around Fairlie Quay is just incredible and teeming with life.
"It is incredible, given it is a working marina, how much you can see."
Ross said his favourite places to dive include Fairlie Quay, Portencross and the section of coastline between Buena Onda restaurant and Largs Pier.
He said: "For all the people who walk past that section of prom every day, if only they knew that the area is absolutely teeming with an extraordinary range of marine creatures on the seabed which are colourful and incredible.
"The incredible arrange of colours you can see is amazing - most people think that Scottish marine life is dull and grey on the surface but underneath it is full of colour.
"And sometimes you only have to go five metres below, like I did last week near the Millport Field Studies Centre - which isn't an awful lot in diving terms - to see a wonderful array of starfish, anemone, lobsters, and bog tail squid which is one of my favourites.
"But we want to see them continue to flourish and that is why it is so important that we look after our seabeds and be mindful of the environmental damage that marine litter is doing."
Earlier this year, Ross told us about a lobster who had created a home inside a traffic cone at Fairlie Quay - see here Fairlie - Shock as lobster found living in TRAFFIC CONE
For more photos from Fairlie and Wee Cumbrae, see below:
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