Back Beach Night Dive

First night dive of the year.  I've been waiting about 9 months for this.  And what a beautiful night, with a sky full of stars and air temps just right.

Went in about 10:30 hoping to find squid.  And squid I found.  Not a lot -- certainly not as many as we'll be seeing later in the summer -- but I did come across five or six.  All were medium-sized and curious enough to come in close and stick around.  Of course, there were also a lot of lobster about, as well as sleeping cunner and a couple of big ravens.

As always on night dives, at the end I came up so that I was looking straight up at the sky and could see the stars while still underwater.  I love that.  And when I came out, I turned around on the beach and took a shot back toward Rockport across the water.

The funny thing is, for years when I've dived here at night, I've noticed faint beams of light that seem to cut their way horizontally through the water.  I've always wondered what they were, and at times thought they were just my imagination.  But looking at the photo (below), it suddenly became obvious: they're the lights of Rockport reflecting across -- and through -- the water.

Great dive. Can't wait to do it again.

Old Garden Beach

What a beautiful day.  It's been a while since I've dived here but I didn't want to fight the low tide rocks at Folly, or feed the meters at Back, so that left Old Garden.
    

When I got up to the beach at 9AM, air temps were already up in the 80s.

I went in and headed out to the big ledge, did one circumnavigation of it, then swung out over the boulder fields.  Lobsters everywhere.  Ditto for pollack.  But it was the sea ravens that took me by surprise.  I came across six of them, all of varying shades of red/yellow.

At the end of the dive, spent a long time lingering in the shallows, not wanting to come out.  Just a great day to be in the water.

Fish Faces

It's that time of year again, again.  The fish are back.  The little guys -- nudibranchs, worms, etc --  are either gone or hidden under blankets of seaweed.  Time to switch camera lenses to a wider zoom and then pray for good viz.  All right!

Nudi Review

It's that time of year again -- June.   Nudibranch season is pretty much over here in southern New England. Of course, there are still some stragglers out there but, for the most part, unless you head up to northern Maine or Canada, they're gone until next winter.  Here's a look back at a few nudi shots from 2014.

The Way Of The Dinosaur

Years ago, I was working on a story about the overfishing of horseshoe crabs for Wildlife Conservation Magazine.  It was an irresistible excuse for a road trip, of course, and so my wife and I drove down to Chesapeake Bay together.

On our first morning there, we pulled into one of the main horseshoe crab landing spots and watched as a handful of them fought their way up through the surf and onto the beach.  But it was early in the season and there weren’t all that many of them yet.  Indeed, at one point, four horseshoe crab fisherman bounced out of a truck, looked around at the sparse pickings, and drove off without even taking any.  Before they left, though, one of them stopped to stare at me and my camera.

Later that morning, my wife and I went into a diner for breakfast and who should be there but the four fishermen.  And it didn’t take long for the one with the staring problem to ask what I was doing there, and for us to get into a debate about the health of the horseshoe crab population.  I brought up the short-sightedness of fishermen picking up tens of thousands of horseshoe crabs as they came up the beach, before they’d had a chance to lay their eggs.  I also mentioned a few studies that had found declining populations, as well as the simple eye test – right there on the walls of the diner, black & white photos taken just 30 years earlier showed stunning numbers of horseshoe crabs on the beach, way more than could be seen now.

My new friend was unimpressed.  “Horseshoe crabs aren’t going anywhere,” he said.  “They’ve been around since the dinosaurs.”

Before I could answer, another of the fishermen, the guy who looked to be the oldest of the group and certainly the alpha, leaned in close to his buddy.  “Seen any dinosaurs walking around lately?”

And that was that.  Suddenly, the other three had nothing to say.

I still think of that guy – usually when I’m looking at a horseshoe crab.  Of course, horseshoe crab numbers continue to plummet.  Here in the northeast, we don’t get anywhere near the numbers of them that they get farther south, but you can still see them.  And now is the time of year to do it.  The smaller males are hanging around in the shallows, waiting for the bigger females to come by.  They'll then latch on and the two of them – sometimes three of them (sea creatures just know how to live) – make their way up onto the beach to lay and fertilize their eggs.  It’s a pretty cool sight.  And an ancient one, too.  After all, they've been doing it since the dinosaurs were around – for whatever that's worth.

  

Waterproof G1 5mm Gloves & Fourth Element 5mm Gloves

If you read my review of Waterproof’s G1 7mm three-finger mitts (http://shinesdiveblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/waterproof-g1-7mm-three-finger-mitt.html), then you know I have a pretty high opinion of this company.  So I looked forward to trying their G1 5mm five-finger gloves.  As much as I love the three-finger mitts, by design, they cause some loss of dexterity and tactile sense, which the five-finger gloves, by design, won’t.  The question was, in what temperature water could I comfortably wear them.

First, a bit of background.  Over the last few years, my favorite five-finger glove has been the Fourth Element 5mm.  Not only are these form-fitting gloves virtually indestructible, they cause almost no loss of dexterity or tactile sense.  And they’re very cool looking.  If Spiderman were a diver, they’d be his glove of choice.  But the one time I wore them in 48-degree water, my hands were pretty cold.  I now only wear them when I know the water is going to be consistently above 51/52 degrees. 

Now back to the Waterproof gloves.  They’re the same high-quality construction as the Waterproof mitts, with the main difference being the lack of an inner seal to help minimize water flow.  Obviously, this means that they aren’t going to be as warm as the mitts but it does makes them easier to get on.

Waterproof G1 5mm gloves

I’ve now worn them on about a dozen dives and, of course, have found that I have more dexterity and tactile sense with them than I do with the mitts, although not as much as I do with the Fourth Element gloves.  The first time I wore them, the water temperature was 44 degrees and that turned out to be a bit too cold.  On the rest of the dives, water temps were 46 degrees and up and, on all of them, my hands were fine.  Dive times ranged from 45 to 65 minutes.  Temperature-wise, that’s outstanding.

Add it all up and what you get is a glove that I love – but not to the point of tossing my Fourth Elements.  Both of these gloves are great but have their advantages and disadvantages over each other, depending on the conditions.

With this in mind, my glove strategy going forward is pretty clear.  When water temps are below 46 degrees, I’ll wear the Waterproof mitts for maximum warmth; when they’re 46 degrees or above, I’ll switch to the Waterproof gloves to gain more dexterity and tactile sense while still staying warm; and when they’re above 52 degrees – the temperature at which I generally switch to a wetsuit anyway – I’ll switch to the Fourth Element gloves to get as much dexterity and tactile sense as possible.

Obviously, I’d recommend both of these gloves for diving in coldish water.  With the Waterproof gloves, your hands will be warmer in colder water; and with the Fourth Element gloves, you’ll have a bit more dexterity and tactile sense.   The optimum situation would be to get both and switch them out as conditions warrant.

Fourth Element 5mm gloves

The Fish In The Mirror

Talk about a face only a mother could love.  I can just imagine a wolfish right after she’s given birth, looking down at all the little wolfies staring back at her, and thinking, aren't they just the most gorgeous creatures you've ever seen! 

That being said, in my opinion, wolfish are the most human-looking of all the fish out there.  I know that sounds like I have a pretty low opinion of our outward beauty (I can just hear Seinfeld, “Have you been down to the DMV lately?”), but it’s true.  About the wolfish, I mean.  Unlike most fish, their heads are fairly rounded and their eyes face almost to the front.  And I've definitely seen teeth like that  – granted, usually only when I’m in the UK, but still.

To add just a bit more insult to my own species, I also think it’s their resemblance to us that makes them kind of scary looking.  You’re swimming along and all of a sudden, here comes this big, blue, humanish-looking face looming up out of the darkness.  It's definitely more frightening than Jason or Freddy.

Add it all up and what you get is a fish most of us can’t resist.  I've definitely never swum by one, or seen anyone else swim by one, without stopping to gawk for at least a minute or two.  It’s too bad there aren't more of them left here in southern New England, but if you want to come face-to-face with one, there are still quite a few up in northern Maine and Canada.  I shot this handsome guy, along with three others, this past weekend on Deer Island in New Brunswick.  So be honest – wouldn't he fit in just fine down at the DMV?