My March Underwater

Another month, more time spent north of the border. Well, north of the Massachusetts border in New Hampshire. My new drysuit had arrived in February, but I had to wait a bit for dry gloves to arrive. I had to abort my first dive on the new suit because I didn’t tighten the inflator valve enough and water was pouring in, but I got it fixed for the next dive and have been loving it ever since.

Locations:

• 2 dives at Fort Constitution Pier in New Castle, New Hampshire
• 1 dive at Peirce Island in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• 1 dive at Folly Cove in Gloucester, Massachusetts

March 11 - Fort Constitution Pier (New Castle, New Hampshire)

Miscommunications all over the place left one buddy at Folly Cove (another “FC”), another at home working due to timing confusion, and me all by myself at Fort Constitution. I had aborted my first dive on the new suit the week before due to an inflator valve that needed tightening, so I figured I would hop in to test the suit and if all went well, stick to the base of the pier for a little while. I walked into the water, put on my fins and submerged and I was perfectly dry! Even before I hit the pier, I found a few nudis so I kept going. On the pilings, I found Onchidoris bilamellata eggs and then after adjusting my eyes, dozens of adults. I also found numerous Tenellia gymnota, a pair of mating sea lemons, and an Ancula gibbosa in the water column. The weirdest find was some sort of larval shrimp or something that I chased for a bit.

March 14 - Peirce Island (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)

After fully specifying our plan in explicit terms including GPS coordinates and no abbreviations, we successfully met up at Peirce Island for a dive. We dropped down the slope and I spotted a cluster of Onchidoris bilamellata eggs - as I moved in to get a closer look, I spotted some nearby movement. It was a lumpfish! I’ve never seen a lumpfish at Peirce (and they are one of my favorites) so I snapped several photos before it wandered away. We saw a bunch of Tenellia gymnota, the usual massive population of Coryphella verrucosa, but the treat was several absolutely massive “verilli” nudis. One was laying a small clutch of eggs and more purple colored while the other was very orange. I also found an Onchidoris muricata, Palio dubia, and Ancula gibbosa to round out a diverse collection of nudis. Another awesome dive at Peirce!

March 26 - Folly Cove (Gloucester, Massachusetts)

Visited Folly Cove for the first time in a few months and was sad to see the sand we enjoyed all summer had mostly disappeared restoring the typically rocky entry. We geared up and hopped in, opting for a cruise down the right side of the cove to avoid a long swim. We found a number of different nudi species, although I will admit I’ve been awfully spoiled with New Hampshire recently. We saw a couple Ancula gibbosa, a few Acanthodoris pilosa, and even an Onchidoris muricata. My favorite find of the dive was a large chameleon shrimp that I followed for a bit and managed to photograph in the water column. Nice dive!

March 28 - Fort Constitution Pier (New Castle, New Hampshire)

I had swapped out the stock Kubi gloves for blue gloves, but I installed them with the inner lining exposed, so the water seeped in past the o-ring. Both hands were thoroughly frozen, but I still managed to get in a solid dive. The pier was absolutely jam-packed with nudis, especially Onchidoris bilamellata, which seemed to be on every surface. I managed to find a few on the edge of a rock, which made for some nice dark background shots. A bonus sea lemon rounded out the nice dive, but my hands were so frozen!

Pictures