Gullmar fjord 21/5 2020 Walls, walls and walls

Hi and ho!

The Sea-loch anemone is rare outside the Gullmar fjord, super common in the Gullmar fjord

This week, me and my friends decided to go diving during the Ascension day in the Gullmar fjord, we also had a boat with us this time, borrowed from another diving club we have close ties with, so we decided to go to some sites that are only reachable by boat. The weather was also going to be super nice according to the forecast, which is why we also decided to have a bbq on the surface intervall later.
So after kitting up and some quick change of gear due to various circumstances, we set out from the Jordfall marina, towards the first diving spot for the day.

Dive 1: Gåseklåvan
Time 52 min. Depth 27 m. temp 10 °C

Can you see the Norwegian Topknot here?

The first dive of the day was at Gåseklåvan, a  vertical wall that goes all the way from the surface down to about 80 m depth. Me and my buddy was the first ones into the water, and after quickly organizing ourselves at the surface we began the descent into the water. We descended following the wall, which was full of marine life of different kinds, mostly anemones and tube worms of different kinds. After reaching a satisfactory depth, we began following the wall towards the east, photographing and filming as we went. After a while swimming at max depth, it became time to go a bit more shallow in order to save gas and not go into deco. At about 10 m, we ran into a bit of a current, which made it hard to stay still and photograph, but as the current was going in the direction we was heading, it did not matter too much.
When we had about 10 min before our time limit, we decided to ascend to the surface and end the first dive, so we simply did that. After getting up into the boat and picking up the last dive pair, we went back to the marina for some bbq and relaxing.


Dive 2: Kolvik.
Time: 54 min. Depth: 17 m. Temp: 11 °C

Nodding hydroid (Corymorpha nutans), somewhat uncommon apparently?

After a surface intervall with bbq and relaxing in the sun. It was time to go out for the second dive. We kitted up the gear and got into the boat. We drove to a site closer to our regular haunts called Kolvik. Me and my buddy got into the water (hit my butt on the side of the boat as i was rolling in) and began descending after signaling "OK" to the surface personell in the boat.
When we reached a satisfactory depth, we began following the wall in the direction of the current
As we swam, my buddy suddenly signaled for me to come take a look at something, that something was a huge Cuckoo wrasse male, which is one of the most colourful fishes in Swedish waters. Unfortunately i could not take a photo of this individual as it retreated back into it's lair when i got closer.
When it became time to get to the surface, i took the opportunity to train how to shoot the SMB, but i accidentally dropped my spool, which wan't that big of a deal as the spool is attached to the line at the end. So i kind of successfully deployed the buoy and retrieved the spool, after which we began to ascend.


All in all this was a super nice dive day and i really need to do this more often.

So until next time. Keep on Swimming!

Henricia.sp, impossible to determine species from picture.