Diving After Hurricanes

Hurricane Cristobal stayed well out to sea on its trip up the Atlantic coastline, but the storm surge did a great job of stirring up the water column, as we were to find out on our dive trip out from Belmar last Friday. In Central Jersey, small craft warnings were announced two days before we went out, and 6 foot seas with swells 12 seconds apart pretty much insured the bottom would be dark and murky.

Hurricane Cristobal August 2014

Our first stop was a small wreck in 90 feet of water that some of our divers were hoping to do some digging on, looking for artifacts. Unfortunately, the bottom was pretty churned up, making it difficult to see too much. It was close to what we call a "braille dive." When I reached the bottom, I tied in my wreck reel and went the opposite direction of all the other lines I saw. I never saw anything besides sand, an occasional rock, and a few little fish. Visibility was less than a foot, and I had to use a flashlight to see the sand from 6 inches away. After ten minutes, I gave up and went up. Nobody spent more than 10 minutes down there.

Our dive boat was clearly visible from 40 feet, so the upper water column was clear.

Our second stop was a site known locally as "The Photography Wreck." Nobody would be taking photos today. I followed the line down to the sand and couldn't even see the strobe light flashing on the line. Dark and cloudy. Another braille dive. I aborted the dive and decided the gas in my tank could be better spent somewhere else. Most of the other divers did likewise.

Our third stop was the "Northeast Sailor." The NE Sailor has a sandy bottom and we hoped that we might at least have some some viz. Luck was with us, and we had what could only be called "NJ okay," which means 3-4 feet of viz. Most of us had been on the site before and since it is a well defined shipwreck, navigation was possible even with the visibility as bad as it was. I found a nice 3 pound lobster, and a few other lobsters and sea bass were caught as well.

Captain Paul said we weren't likely to find better viz anywhere else, and we decided to stay on site for a second dive. 

Not the best day diving, but I don't think any of the divers on the boat regretted missing work.

Dive Trip Report - May 21, 2014 Belmar NJ

Just thought I'd share the local conditions, since this has been a colder than normal winter and the ocean hasn't warmed up as much as you'd normally expect.

NOAA had predicted 15 - 20 kt winds and 2-3 foot seas. The air was calm and the ocean was like glass. Maybe a 1 foot swell rolling through every 20 seconds. The winds never picked up, which NOAA has also forecasted for the afternoon.

A group of us chartered the Venture 3 in Belmar, NJ. We did 3 dives and 3 different sites. 
Depending who you talked to, bottom temp at 80 ft was either 42 or 44. During safety hang at 15 feet, water temp was 54 degrees. Because of the cold, most of us kept our bottom times between 20 - 30 minutes.

Visibility was about 7 feet on all dives. Our first stop was the remnants of an old wooden wreck in 70 feet, not one of the well known wrecks. Bottom was very dark and there was a bit of current.

Second stop was a man-made reef. Same conditions.

Our third stop was a natural rock pile, and it was much brighter, although the same 7 or 8 feet of vis.

Being my first dive of the year, I didn't bring my pole spear, figuring I just wanted to relax and get acclimated (I haven't been in the ocean since November). There was a ton of sea bass all over the wrecks, and some nice sized ones as well. It would have been easy to fill up a game bag with them. Fortunately, there were also a ton of lobsters, which we did fill our game bags with.

If anyone out there is in the area and is familiar with the Venture 3, we may have a few spots open for next Friday, May 30th.

Scuba Diving for Lobsters

One of my favorite foods is lobster.  There are basically two types of lobsters commercially caught and served up in restaurants, fish-markets and supermarkets.

When you buy "lobster tail," you are generally getting what's known as a warm water lobster.  As you'd probably guess, these lobsters are generally caught in warmer climates.  Called "Spiny Lobsters," these are found in the waters off of California, Florida, throughout the Caribbean Sea and along the coast of South America.  Africa and the Middle East have their own spiny lobsters as well.

The tails tend to be brownish with reddish hues.  The tails often have spots as well:

Spiny lobster, ready for cooking

The most obvious thing you'll note about the spiny lobster is that it has no claws:

Spiny lobster, just caught

When you buy the whole lobster, you are generally getting a "North American Lobster," often called a "Maine Lobster:"

The North American lobster is a much redder color, and it turns bright red when cooked.  Nature did a kind thing for the color blind, by adding a pair of claws to the North American lobster, just in case you couldn't see the color.

The biggest difference between the two lobsters, from a epicurean vantage point, is that for the spiny lobster, most of the meat is in the tail, while the North American lobster has a lot of meat distributed in its claws.

So why the discussion of lobsters on a scuba diving web site?  Because after getting their basic open water experience, many divers develop underwater interests.  Here on the east coast, a common scuba diving activity is catching lobsters.  Or, as some of us sardonically say, "rescuing them from the ocean."

Lobsters tend to live in shipwrecks, hiding under wreckage, in pipes, in "caves" formed by debris and any other place where they can take refuge from predators.  Since the eastern coastline is littered with shipwrecks, it's a great place to find lobsters.

I've been diving for about 25 years, but I'm still a baby when it comes to catching lobsters.  However, let me share this link to a "how to guide" for scuba diving lobster fisherman, courtesy of Dan Berg, one of our Pinterest followers.  Thanks for following us Dan, and thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise:

http://www.aquaexplorers.com/lobster_diving.htm

The full article to Dan's Lobster Diving Guide can be found by clicking here.

A quick parting word about lobstering: the cold Atlantic coast isn't' the only place where scuba divers find lobsters.  Coming up in a future post, catching Spiny Lobsters.

Thanks for reading - DSAO!  (Dive safe and often)