My May Underwater

May 9 - Fort Constitution Pier (New Castle, New Hampshire)

Surface conditions were downright nasty. There were whitecaps on the river and fog everywhere. We submerged to terrible visibility, but the great news is there were critters everywhere. I spent most of the dive playing around with a shallow DOF, so I didn’t get a lot of great photos, but there were lots of Onchidoris bilamellata, Dendronotus frondosus, tiny sculpin, Tenellia gymnota, Cuthonella concinna, you name it. The water temperature was just fine and we hung around for 73 minutes despite the junky viz.

May 15 - Folly Cove (Gloucester, Massachusetts)

I arrived around 8 in an effort to get 2 dives in, but my camera freaked out when I hit the water for dive #1, so I played surface support for one buddy while she did dive #1. My other buddies arrived for dive #2 so I geared up and headed in with no camera. This was a super nice dive - lots of tiny sculpin, moon snails including a pair possibly mating and one definitely eating a surf clam, numerous zebra lebbeid shrimp, a Cadlina laevis (new to me!) in the sand, a Facelina bostoniensis, a bunch of other nudis, and a huge lumpfish! Super chill!

May 21 - Fort Constitution Pier (New Castle, New Hampshire)

Surface conditions were way better than last dive and the pier was busy. As it turns out, there was a Sea Grant youth program going on that day and several staff members approached us to ask if we would collect some critters to show the kids. We enthusiastically agreed and used a silicone snack bag to collect Onchidoris bilamellata, several sea lemons, a Dendronotus frondosus, some urchins, a few sea stars, an Asian shore crab, and after we were done photographing the scallop, we put that in the catch bag as well. The critters were out, but the current was moving. We spent a full hour kicking against the current, crashing into each other, clinging to rocks and the bottom, and then eventually floated on back to the entry point on the current. We surfaced to a bunch of kids on the pier waving and asking us questions about the dive, so that was enjoyable. This dive was a lot of fun, but a lot of work.

May 25 - Folly Cove (Gloucester, Massachusetts)

Joined the New England Aquarium Dive Club for our monthly shore dive. On arrival, conditions were worse than I expected with waves rolling into the cove and stirring up seaweed throughout. The North Shore Frogmen were also at the site, so there were divers everywhere and it was tricky to find a spot to unload. I dropped the gear, parked up the street and walked back. We geared up and headed in, planning to cruise the left side as usual to see what we could see. I was hoping to find the lumpfish we spotted last time, but wasn’t too optimistic given the conditions. The viz wasn’t great (as predicted), but it was actually fine for macrophotography. We managed to mostly stay together spotting lots of nudibranchs, tons of little arthropods, tons of small clear fish, several tiny rock gunnels, and even a few zebra lebbeid shrimp. I was ready to hop back in for a second dive, but I was the only one so I packed up and headed home. Folly is so much easier during the week!

May 29 - Folly Cove (Gloucester, Massachusetts)

After questionable conditions and crowds on Sunday, we arrived to calm seas, low tide, and bright sunny skies despite a cloudy forecast. We geared up, carefully crossed the rocky beach, and entered the water. We headed over to the west wall and we were absolutely surrounded by tiny fish. We cruised very slowly finding countless tiny rock gunnels and sculpin, several Onchidoris bilamellata, a bunch of Dotos, and a tiny sculpin who had eaten an even smaller sculpin. As we swam back, we were joined by an absolutely massive shoal of tiny fish. I swam alongside them enjoying the shimmering in the sunshine when all of a sudden, a school of larger fish started hitting the shoal from the far side. They made a couple passes and then disappeared, but it was really cool to see. As we kicked out over the sand to the exit, we continued to be surrounded by thousands of tiny fish and I confirmed the sand lance ID as I saw many of them burst from the sand as I swam by. This was an excellent, leisurely dive.

Videos

The sand lance made for some excellent video opportunities! Fortunately, I had my GoPro mounted on top of my rig to capture the wide angle while I shot stills with my macro lenses.