Jordfalls Hamn 11/11 2023 Winter is comming

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we decided to head to the Jordfalls Hamn marina, one of our more frequented dive spots. The weather was nice enough, though a bit threatening with cloudy skies and a slight damp cold in the air (but hey, at least it wasn't too windy)

Spiny squat lobsters often come out in the open when it is dark

Dive 1: 

Depth 29 m, Time: 45 minutes, Temp: 10 C

Me and my buddy headed out into the bay as one usually does, while kitting up, we had planned the dive to either go straight out over the deep soft bottom if we deemed it dark enough, or head towards the left side and the rocky bottom if it wasn't dark enough. As we started to descend, I deemed it sort of dark enough to at least try and head straight outwards in hopes of squids, so that is what we did. Swimming outwards and following the soft bottom, we kept going until we hit about 29 m, after which we started to turn towards the left again (to be honest, 30 is a good stopping point, not really worth it to head down to 40)

We kept swimming along as we usually do, photographing as we went, at about 26 m, i spotted a small shape sticking out of the sand, turned out to be a angular crab (Goneplax rhomboides) digging down into the sand. We stopped for a bit and tried to photograph it, or at least try, as it was quite hazy in the water on this day. Well, after getting done with harassing the poor crab, we continued on until we found the wall, at which point we started making our way back to the starting point. It was at 12 m we started to realize that it is starting to become winter now, as the surface waters are colder than the deep waters, by about 3-4 C, Well, after suffering a bit on the safety stop, we ended the dive at 45 minutes, got up and made ready for the surface interval.

Angular crab doing angular crab things

Dive 2:

Depth: 31 m, Time: 41 min, Temp: 10 C

After having had a surface interval with hot drinks and stuff, it was time to head back into the water, me and my buddy once again made our plan to head almost straight outwards in hope of finding squid, so said and done, we swam out to the end of the pier in the marina and started descending down. Soon after getting visual contact with the seafloor, while making our way outwards, I started spotting Boston Facelinas, a type of nudibranch i have not seen in real life before (or just overlooked, they look similar to some other species). Well we did spend a few minutes photographing those before continuing on our way outwards. Not much happened on the rest of the dive really, but apparently i missed a squid while i was photographing a sculpin fish according to my buddy, they got some photos of the squid though :P
After a while, we started to run low on no-deco time and started to head back towards the starting point again, ending the dive at 41 minutes. When we got up, it was snowing ever so slightly, really heralding that the winter months are upon us.

All in all, i was satisfied with the dives of the day, despite the slight chill in the waters

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Boston facelina crawling on a piece of tire

Släggö 4/11 2023 Divers Night 2023

 Hi and ho!

As is tradition, the first Saturday of November is Divers Night, the international night diving event, and as such, me and my buddies went to Släggö in Lysekil, where the local event for Divers Night occurs for us. 

There was a bit of a delay in our plans due to various circumstances, cutting the first dive a bit short in order to get a proper surface interval.

Lumpsucker male guarding his brood

Dive 1:

Depth: 18 m, Time: 37 min, Temp: 9 C

Our plan for this dive was to follow the line for a bit until we reached the 6 m buoy (used to mark safety stops) after which we were to look around a bit in that area, see there were reports of a Lumpsucker male having set up shop there guarding his eggs, so we descended rather immediately after jumping in and getting our bearings. After reaching the 6 m buoy anchoring point, we started looking around for the Lumpsucker, and lo and behold, after a little bit, we did find him and his brood, just by one of the rocks in the rubble area. He lay so still and nice, so me and photographer buddy hung around a bit and photographed him before leaving him be. We continued to follow the slope outwards for a bit, and after a little while, i spotted something in the corner of my eye, turned out to be a teuthid squid ("squid-shaped" squid so to speak). Unfortunately it was moving around a lot, so i couldn't get the camera to focus on the critter, instead i just followed it while trying to film it (still was no good), photographer buddy did manage to snap some photos of it though :)

After letting the squid swim away, our other buddy signalled for us to come over, turned out that they had also spotted a bobtail squid, which both me and photographer buddy started snapping photos of, and not soon after, another bobtail was found in the vicinity, which was of course also photographed for a bit. Not much really occurred after this, and we soon had to turn back towards the starting point, ending our dive at 37 minutes.

Bobtail squid, the main attraction of autumn and winter diving here

Dive 2: Divers Night main dive

Depth: 21 m, Time: 54 min, Temp 9 C

Unfortunately one of my buddies had to scrub their dive, as they had not closed their zipper properly before jumping in :(

Now it was time for the main event of Divers Night, on land we had decided to just sort of stay in a group, but if we lost contact with each other (mainly me and photographer buddy getting separated from the others, as it often happens) then we would just continue on in pairs. Said and done, we jumped in and started to descend into the waters, following the slope as usual, out over the soft bottom. Surprisingly, we managed to keep the whole group together, despite us being 2 photographers there😛.

No squids on this dive, even though we kept a lookout for them and were over the ideal kind of substratum where the squids are often found, me and photographer buddy did however manage to find some Bryer's Nut Crab, a extremely small species of crab that is hard to spot.

We ended our dive at 54 minutes, got up and doffed the gear, making ready to head home.

All in all, it was a good Divers Night, despite the things that didn't go so well this time around.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Bryer's Nut Crab (Ebalia tumefacta), super small and super hard to spot

Stavanger 1/7- 3/7 2023 A journey to the west

Hi and Ho!

It has once again been a while (but such is life).

In the meantime i have been diving as usual, and most recently went to Norway for a diving trip, more exactly the Stavanger area, where the goal was to look for Spiny dogfish, a small species of shark native to this part of the world.

Due to the weather, we couldn't go to the spot we had originally planned, but such is life when diving.

Prideaux's hermit crab, together with the Cloak anemone (Calliactis palliata), these two are almost always encountered together 

1/7 2023

Dive 1: Talgje

Depth: 30 m, Time: 50 min, Temp 8 C

We were shown a site on the eastern tip of a island called Talgje, so that became the name of the dive site. We began with kitting up on the shore, where there was a few benches one could put the gear on while kitting up, we then divided ourselves into pairs and started to wade out into the water (with some difficulties, lots of algae covered slippery rocks. Well into the water, it quickly dropped off and got deep, so we got our bearings on the surface, talked through the plans and started to descend. As we descended, we quickly realized that "oh mighty Poseidon, the visibility is REALLY good" and for real, the visibility must have been 20-30 m, almost tropical levels. Our guides (local divers from the area) started with putting out a meshbag with some mackerels in it, in order to potentially lure out the spiny dogfish in the area. We then left the meshbag hanging mid-water and continued to swim along the wall, taking in and enjoying the sights. As we swam along, i started to spot hermit crabs that were swimming away from us, getting a bit closer, I realized that this was a different species than the one we have in my usual diving spots. A species we actually don't have in Sweden, the Prideaux's hermit crab. 

After about 20 minutes, we turned around and made our way back towards the starting point, where the mesh bag was located, hoping to find sharks circling around, but alas, no sharks this dive. We ended the dive at 50 minutes, got up and started to make ready to head to the cabin we had rented, to make some dinner (as it was a bit late at this point)

Dive 2: Ølbergstrand

Depth: 3 m, Time 40 min, Temp: 11 C

From our guides, we had heard that there was a dive site reachable from the shore close to the cabin we were staying in, a dive site where there was a kelp forest, So me and two other buddies headed there after eating dinner, we soon found that it was outside a small harbour, and that the most effective way to get there was to enter the water in the harbour and do a surface swim out. Well that is what we did, as soon as we had gotten out of the harbour, we started to descend into the water, and soon found the kelp forest after a bit of swimming. We spent some time in the kelp forest before one of us was starting to get sea sick (there was some swell from the open sea further out, and this was a exposed site), so we started to make our way back at this point. We ended our dive at 40 minutes, got up and started to doff our gear and head back to our cabin.

Gold-star Tunicate in the kelp forest of Ølbergstrand

2/7 2023

Dive 3: Horgje

Depth: 29 m, Time 55 min, Temp 8 C

We got invited to do a boat dive together with the local diving club, Stavanger Dykkerklubb. The tour took us to the nearby island of Horgje, more exactly the south-eastern tip of the island, where one can either dive along a wall, or a more gentle slope with a lot of algae forest. Me and my buddy chose to dive the wall this time, and so we did. Unfortunately, i had accidentally left the camera out in the sun again, so i was getting a fogged up lens, and thus, no photos from this dive. Oh well, me and my buddy swam along the wall, the visibility was pretty good here as well, though not as good as Talgje. After about 30 minutes, I made signal to turn around, and we started to swim back to the boat. We ended the dive at 55 minutes, got up in the boat and doffed our gear, waiting for the other's to finish their dives.

Dive 4: Fantahåla

Depth: 36 m, Time 66 min, Temp: 8 C

The fourth dive took us a bit outside of Stavanger, to the site of Fantahåla in Lysefjorden. This site is a wall that goes quite deep down, so one needs to have good buoyancy control. We were guided there by Gjesdal dykkerklubb, using their boat to reach the site, we were dropped of inside the ravine of Fantahåla and swam to the wall before starting to descend. As we descended, it quickly became clear that visibility was to be quite bad, to the level of  the kind of visibility we have here in Sweden. We followed the wall, and soon, our guide pointed their flashlight at something, this something turned out to be a Deeplet sea anemone, another species that is relatively rare back home in Sweden. As we swam along, there were more of the Deeplet sea anemones, but as my camera housing was still a bit foggy, I couldn't quiet get a good photo until the tail-end of the dive. 

We ended the dive at 66 minutes, got back into the boat and started to head home once more :)

Deeplet sea anemone with a Norway king crab hiding underneath

3/7 2023

Dive 5: Talgje

Depth: 29 m, Time 59 min, Temp: 8 C

The last dive of the trip was taken at Talgje, this time, we went down into the water on the other side of the bay, where it was much much easier to get in and don our fins. We swam out of the bay and started to descend pretty soon afterwards. Once again, the visibility was incredible, maybe slightly worse than the previous time, but still extremely good by our Swedish standards. We followed the wall once more, hoping to find any sharks, but to no avail, there was no sharks this time either, there was however a lot of other critters to photograph instead, so i was still satisfied. After swimming around for about 30 minutes, I made the signal for me and my buddy to turn back, And so we did, we did however miss our mark by a bit, and ended up on the wrong side of the bay, so there was a bit of a surface swim back to our starting point. We ended the dive at 59 minutes, got up and started doffing our gear, making ready to head back to the cabin for dinner and cleaning before leaving the next morning.

All in all it was a very satisfying trip, even if one of my drysuit boots was leaking quite severely, so i ended ever dive sopping wet.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Candy-striped flatworm, there was a lot of them on the site of Talgje

Ormestad 20/5 2023 - When you stare into the abyss

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, we decided to dive on a site we haven't been to in a while due to the small bit of hassle it is to get there compared to our other sites (we are lazy if anything), either way, the site of Ormestad is known for "the great wall" a almost vertical cliff wall that extends from the surface and down to 90 m depth. This makes the site very popular among technical divers, as you can get any depth you want within most types of technical diving. When we got to the site, it was almost filled to the brim with technical divers (which was sort of expected, with the super fine weather and whatnot), but we managed to find some spots where we could start to set up our gear.

Henricia.sp starfish, as hard to ID as ever.

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 50 min, Temp: 7 C

Me and my buddy swam to the left side of the Ormestad bay, to the point where the wall sort of starts before we started our descent. This day the surface temperatures were quite high, but as soon as we got down to about 4-5 m, we hit the thermocline, which felt like getting smacked in the face, almost immediately it went from 18-ish C to 7 Celsius, with the halocline sort of right there as well. After getting our bearings and sort of acclimatizing to the temperature drop, we started to head towards the drop-off of the wall. It really is a special feeling to dive on the wall of Ormestad, you really stare into the abyss when you look down, as there is no visual contact with the bottom here, so you got to have good check on your buoyancy here. Anyways, we followed the wall, photographing as we made our way. After a while, I made signal to turn around, and so we made our way back towards the starting point. We surfaced at 50 minutes and made our way back to shore, making ready for a surface interval in the sun.

Sea loch anemone, the wall of Ormestad is full of them.

Dive 2: 

Depth 26 m, Time 40 min, Temp: 7 C

After a surface interval in the sun, with some light snacks, we once again made for the waters. This time we decided to dive on the right side instead of the left, over the sandy slopes instead of the vertical wall. After descending through the thermo-halocline, I soon discovered that I had apparently left my camera in the sun, resulting in fogging of the lens which would hold the rest of the dive (it happens). Either way, we continued onwards, following the slope downwards. After a while, we came across a rocky outcropping that jutted out of the soft bottom , so we started to make our way over it. Here was indeed quite a lot of life on and around, sea urchins, sea anemones, hydroids, and even a rugose squat lobster, but as my lens was fogged up, i couldn't snap any photos of them. Soon after, i signalled for us to turn back towards the starting point, and a little bit later, as we were swimming, something suddenly darted out from the bottom in front of me, I turned my head and saw that it was a squid, which is quite rare to see when it is light outside (and i could naturally not snap photos because of fogged lens). After posing a bit in front of it for my buddy (to show how small the bobtails are), we left it alone again and continued on our way back. We surfaced at 40 minutes, got up and started making ready to head home again.

All in all, despite the heat on the surface and the cold in the water, it was a nice dive day, and we did get the nice surprise in the form of a squid too :)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

White sea slug (but yellow) Cadlina laevis

Jordfall 14/5 2023. Starting to warm up.

 Hi and ho!

This week, the weather has been really fine, with sunny skies and high temperatures, but as it is still early in the year, the sea has yet to warm up. That being said, it is starting to get slightly warmer right now, so one can maybe forgo the winter vest.

Devonshire cup coral

Dive 1:

Depth: 29 m, Time: 55 min, Temp: 7 C

We swam out to the end of the pier before we started to descend into the water column and downwards. As soon as we got visual contact with the bottom and got our bearings, we started to make our way towards the right side of Jordfall marina, as we had planned to, following the slope downwards as we went. 

We swam along, making way towards the right side, following the bottom and slope. There was really not much going on here on this day, the water was rather pleasant though. When we got to whereabout the unexplored cliff area, it was about time to turn around (We really need to explore this area more me thinks). We started making our way back, but as we were also relatively low on no-deco time, we also had to make our way more shallow a bit quickly. We ended the dive at 55 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, making ready for a surface interval in the sun.

Fireworks anemone up close and personal

Dive 2:

Depth: 30 m, Time: 40 min, Temp: 7 C

After having had a surface interval with drinks and some food, we made ready to head into the waters again. This time we decided that we were to head straight out and towards the left instead, trying to look for Fireworks anemones. We swam out until we were in line with the pier once more before we started to descend and swim outwards in a relatively good pace. After a while, at about 28 m depth, we came across one of the Fireworks anemones that is usually present on this side of Jordfall, as well as some "forests" of Tall sea pens. Due to having gone deep on the first dive as well, we had to turn around soon after this, as we were starting to run low on both air and no-deco time. We made our way back, following the the muddy slope upwards and back to the starting point, ending our dive at 40 minutes.

All in all, I can say that this was a good dive day, if maybe a bit on the boring side, as nothing out of the ordinary happened, but then again, i think i prefer days when nothing is happening :)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Orange brown aeolid out on the soft mud bottom.

Jordfall 30/4 2023

 Hi and ho!

This week, the weather being nice, we decide that the site of the week was to be the Jordfall marina, as it is a nice fair-weather dive site. It is also a easy dive site, and as we were bringing someone who hadn't dived in a while, it was a good choice in my opinion :)

Sea mouse (Aphrodita aculeata), a species I haven't seen in a bit

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time 39 min, Temp 7 C

We swam out to the left side of the bay, close to the cliffs, before we started to descend. The waters were relatively murky due to spring bloom going at full force, the surface waters were decidedly warmer, but it quickly cooled down after 2-4 m, but without a clear thermocline. The halocline was however quite clear, despite the windy conditions that had been going for the last few days, showing as a blur at 8 m. We continued swimming as soon as everyone had gotten their bearings, following the slope and walls down and to the left. As we swam along, one in our pair signalled that we were to turn around again, and that is what we did, going more shallow. We ended our dive at 39 minutes, got up and got ready for our surface interval. When we were talking at the surface interval it turned out that the buddy who did the turn signal had been feeling uncomfortable and a slight panic at the depth, which cleared up as we got more shallow, which makes us suspect that it was a CO2 hit due to various factors on this day. Good thing it turned out well this time, and that they now know the signs of it.

Devonshire cup coral

Dive 2:

Depth: 28 m, Time: 44 min, Temp 7 C

After a surface interval, we decided to go for a second dive, we also decided to go more towards the right side of Jordfall marina, and that is what we did, I think we went further to the right than we have done before, as we came upon a wall area that i do not recognize, going quite deep it seems, might be worth it to investigate another week. This dive went much better for our other buddy, even if we went longer and deeper on this one, as well as into "uncharted territories". Which is good indeed I'd say (was a bit worried that they might be scared of diving after such a episode). 

At about 20 minutes, we started to turn around and head back to the starting point, we ended the dive at 44 minutes, got up and got ready to head home again.

All in all, I think it was a nice dive day, despite the slight hiccup of a CO2 hit on the first dive.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Fireworks anemone, seems like they move around, for this wasn't on that place two weeks ago

Släggö 23/4 2023 It might be warming up?

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, the forecast was predicting rain, so we choose to go to Släggö, as there is roof to shelter from rain and wind on this site.

Devonshire cup-coral, small but colourful

Dive 1:

Depth: 3 m, Time: 48 min, temp: 10 C

We jumped into the water and started descending almost immediately, as we were planning to hunt for nudibranchs in the shallow waters. The waters did feel quite warm for the season, but I guess that was due to the weather of the past week, being sunny and and really warm for mid-April (that has changed for now, raining as I write this 😅). Due to this warmth, there were no nudis to be found in the shallow waters in the bay of Släggö, instead there was a lot of filamentous algae growing, suggesting that indeed the nice weather was "to blame" for it. Alas it is what it is, and shallow near-shore nudis are seasonal after all (we should still be able to find nudis out when taking a boat trip)

We swam around for about 48 minutes before I got bored and signalled that we were to ascend and end the first dive. 

Sea-loch anemone, a common sight

Dive 2:

Depth 23 m, Time 53 min, Temp 6 C

After a surface interval, it was time to once again head into the waters, this time, we had decided to swim out to the cliffs on the opposite side of the bay before descending, and then follow the cliffs outwards and downwards. So that is exactly what we did. As we were trucking along the wall, we came upon a very clear halocline at 18 m depth, it was clear enough that you could see the waters mixing in the light of my dive light. We continued on, through the halocline, where it did clear out quite good as one went through it. On the rocky cliffs, there was much more to see, though mostly things that were expected, as they were sessile species. Examples include Devonshire cup coral, Sea-loch anemones and Peacock feather-duster worms. After about 20 minutes, I made the signal to turn around, as I know that it takes a while to get back too. We ended the dive at 53 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, getting ready to head home.

All in all, this dive day was a bit disappointing, but such is life sometimes. And hey, it didn't rain, despite the forecast😁

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Greater pipefish staring into the camera