Scuba Seafood Party

NOAA was pretty much on target with today's forecast, 10-15 kt winds and 3-4 ft seas. We decided to stay closer to shore so we'd reach a site quicker and get into the water quicker in case conditions worsened.

First stop was the Northeast Sailor, an old unknown wooden wreck in 75 ft of water. 

Everyone wanted to stay for a second dive on the Sailor because the viz was so good and there was so much life on the wreck. I put viz at 15 ft, but it was very light, not dark from particulate like we've been seeing the past few weeks. I got a bottom temp of 59. Also, a bit of bottom current. The NE Sailor has a sandy bottom, so you could really get down on your belly and shove your arm into those holes trying to grab the lobsters without stirring up a lot of muck.

Tons of sea bass, a few nice fluke (although no door mats) and more than a few lobsters. There's still quite a few bugs in that chain pile. 

3rd stop was a low lying rock pile that we tied in to a couple of miles off-shore. Lots of fish and lobsters were taken, including a 3-1/2 pounder that yours truly brought home. Nothing makes your wife support your diving addiction more than fresh lobster and a bottle of Pouilly Fuisse.

Now here's a shipwreck I'd love to dive on

Can anyone remember Christopher Columbus's 3 ships? The Nina, the Pinta and the ............?

The Santa Maria sank after running onto a reef in Haiti in 1492. Now, archeologists are pretty sure they've found it. For the full article, click here.

Wreck of the Santa Maria

Thanks for sharing this page with your friends - and DSAO!

Changes to US Navy Guidelines regarding diving on Military Shipwrecks

Do you dive on shipwrecks that are sunken military ships?  Here is a posting from the Federal Register covering some new guidelines being issued by the US Navy regarding diving on shipwrecks.  It's quite a long article with quite a bit of legalese, and some in the diving industry are grumbling about how vague some of the language is.

I'll leave it up to you to decide for yourselves.  The article is here:

US Navy regualations on Shipwreck diving

Aside from disturbing human remains, which I think is totally wrong and should both be prohibited by law and respected by divers, my opinion is that a ship that's been laying on the bottom of the ocean for 100 years is going to continue to disintegrate until it's no more.  A diver visiting it and even (gasp) grabbing a souvenir like a porthole or a piece of pottery no way harms the wreck, nor would leaving those "treasures" in place cause the ship to be preserved any longer.  Divers taking artifacts makes those artifacts available to the public to see, which is of far greater value then having them rot away on the ocean floor.

What's your opinion?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Thanks for sharing, and DSAO!

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)