Another satisfying Fort Wetherill dive.
The first of the tropicals is seen tonight, a scrawled pipe fish, caught kissing the sand 🙂 It did not stop.
Plethora of baby puffers near the ramp, the burrfish, the squid were all fun but the high point of the dive was the snailfish. So tiny, so shy and so pretty like a dainty jewelry. I was pleasantly surprised to see her here, I really thought it belongs to northern waters.
23 ft, 83 min, 69F
Even though we know by now that the best time to dive at Fort Wetherill is August – October, when the squids peak and the tropicals arrive to hang out with us for a while, we just cannot be patient and every year start going there by June. While they were not the kind of dives we expected, they did not disappoint.
I enjoyed the June 23rd dive, especially. Soon after I submerged at the ramp, right where the sand and the eel grass meet I saw the ever-elusive oyster toadfish chilling on the ground. As soon as he saw my lights the chase started. I was trying to get a shot of it at the same time trying to signal Bert, as he was getting ready to get in. Unfortunately he missed the toadfish but I could get the visual proof of fish-sighting. He was really beautiful and I as very lucky to get a glimpse of him, as they rarely are seen outside of their holes. We started our dive after I lost the poor fish among the eel grass, accompanied by the quacky sound they make (as we realized after the dive) throughout the dive.
For both dives the viz was mediocre for Fort Wetherill. There were plenty of alien creatures in the water column and I love playing with them. I tried to practice blackwater photography but the backscatter due to the high density of particulate matter makes it really hard to get a decent photo, that’s if you can properly focus on the ever-moving subjects.
We also had some squid interaction, which was a good early surprise, as I did not expect them this early.
#410: No computer
#412: 14ft, 100min, 64F
Some dives are better than others. This was one of the better ones. The conditions were beautiful, flat water, good viz, low tide at Folly cove that you just walk to the right wall. Under the water it was the first time I felt comfortable with the cold in my wetsuit that I could make a decently long dive enjoying all the colors of the macro life on its peak.
Once again, the nudibranchs were in abundance, especially the doto’s with all different color variations. Whenever I dive at Folly, I try to get to the overhanging ledge to look for the little C. gymnota’s hiding inside the dangling hydroid bundles. This time, to my surprise the C. gymnota’s were out in the open and they were quite big, compared to others I have seen before. That was a good surprise.
I inspected all kinds of hydroids closely to find different kinds of macro life and there were tons of them. Tiny nudis, mostly E. exiguus, little skeleton shrimps and all kinds of amphipods. Some of the photos reflect the variety of life and color in the details, sometimes I can only appreciate at home on the computer due to the scale of these life forms.
I came across some stripers and sand lances running around at the shallows and finally finished the dive after photographing the underbellies of two D. robustus hanging on a bunch of sea lettuce in the shallows.
Buddies: Jason & Amy
#409: 24 ft, 115 min, 52F
June continued to be a good time to dive Lanes Cove and observe more of the remaining nudibranchs before they disappear until next fall, except the visitor lemon nudis because they stay. I am glad we could get in plenty of dives before the parking restrictions were added on this site, as well.
Both dives we hit the wall at ~60ft, lemon nudibranchs (sea lemons) live. These big nudis like deeper land, where the water is greener. They like to eat sponges and they vary in color, from pale yellow to dark pink, maybe based on what they had earlier that day. You are what you eat, afterall.
In addition to the sea lemons, there were other few nudis as well. I think this year was the year of dotos, they were at every site at every depth in all different outfits.
#408: 53ft 72min 43F
#411: 53ft 79min 46F
