Halibut Point, Rockport, MA
Halibut Point is one of the harder sites in Gloucester to dive. In order to get there you need to haul your gear 1000 ft through the trees and bushes. Once you get your stuff to the dive site after 2-3 trips you can easily set your gear up on the conveniently positioned boulders. However, once you have everything on you will have to hop over the boulders to get to the water, which might be challenging if you don’t know where to enter.
In the map below red line shows the walk way from the parking area near “Lobster Pool” restaurant. As mentioned earlier this route is 1000 ft and it takes about 5-7 mins. Based on our experience the easiest entry is shown by the blue fish on the map. Both high tide and low tide entries are possible at this entry location.
Diving:
In my opinion diving here is one of the best around.
Similar to the surface topology, the boulders cover the bottom of the water with a slope down to ~50-70 ft where the boulders meet the sand.
At this site, again you can dive a few different ways.
1. In all my dives up to date we have dove straight out following the slope down with a heading between NW-NWN. This dive flows over the rocky bottom covered with some seaweed and kelp which disappear around 30 ft. Below 50 ft the boulders meet the sand in a grim atmosphere with an eerie feeling to it. I definitely feel adventurous every time I dive here, always want to go a little bit further to see what is beyond the visibility curtain.
2. Once you start your dive, if you bear left I have been told that there is a big wall full of crevices. During my last dive I had a glimpse at this wall and it looks very interesting. I will try to explore more and update this part. Hopefully soon enough.
3. If you are good on air and ambitious enough you can dive from Halibut Point to Folly Cove and explore all kinds of topology. This is still something I have to do. To be updated…
Parking:
Currently street parking is allowed around the “Lobster Pool” restaurant. There are a few spots bear the beginning of the trail as shown in the map.
When to dive:
Since we figured out the entry we can dive this site both at high and low tide. But getting there requires a good physical health and stable feet. A few people’s ass had kissed the ground and it wasn’t pleasant.
The wind bearing is the thing to pay attention to before planning to dive this site. It is quite in the open, facing N/NW, thus any wind from that direction makes the water choppy and entry/exit tricky.
Attractions:
For me the attraction on this site is the marine life and the eerie atmosphere down at ~60 ft. Searaven, sculpin, rock gunnels, radiated shannies are regulars at this site. We have seen searobin and oceanpout, there were reports of goose fish as well. Once you hit 40-60 feet in the grayish green background if you shine your light on you would see many scarlet psolus dining with their fingers open.
Another big attraction there is the lobstering. Many lobsters hide under the crevices under the big boulders. Few comes out empty handed from this site.
(Thanks to Timur Kholodenko for the edits)
Additional info from other divers:
Ron Watson: “I have dove Halibut Pt. for over 40 years , but never where you are showing. I dive to the right of the quarry on the front side. Long walk, but well worth the trip. Have seen spiny dogfish, striped bass, bluefish, 2 basking sharks, torpedo rays, and I think a blue shark but the visibility was low (which is unusual here) so I am not sure. The front side has massive flat rocks slopping gradually into the water. It is a great place for family picnics, lots of tide pools at low tide for kids to explore. It also is a great place for snorkeling.” (From Facebook comments)