Jordfall 12/11 2022, Night diving once more

Hi and ho!

This weekend we went to our regular site of the Jordfall marina for diving, it was after some debating and thinking that we choose this site as there has been a recent slew of trawlers getting dangerously close to the dive sites in the Gullmarsfjorden area. But we decided that the risk of getting trawled was somewhat negligible with how we dive on that site, as we don't go quite that far out.

Devonshire cup corals (Caryophyllia smithii)

Dive 1:

Depth: 30m, Time: 51 min, Temp: 13 C

We waded out into the bay, and quickly understood that this day was one of those days where the surface waters was a layer dark brown freshwater, likely forming a murky lid over the saltwater, and thus allowing for night diving condition, even at daylight hours. Me and my buddy swam out to the end of the pier and started our descent there. We kept close to each other, as the visibility wa really really bad. At about 5-8 m, the visibility cleared up, though it was clear that there was still freshwater mixing, as our movements still stirred up the water, making it a bit more turbid. This continued until we hit about 20 m. As predicted, it was almost pitch black underneath the layer of brown freshwater, a typical "Gullmarsfjord-lid", and that is just how we like it, as all the critters are less skittish in "night" conditions. 

We followed the bottom outwards to the deeper mud slopes of the site, looking for squids as we went, but alas, we didn't find any this dive.

After a while, we started to make our way back towards the starting point, taking it slowly (maybe a little bit too slowly, was being a bit chased by the No Deco time limit in some spots). We surfaced at 51 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, getting ready for a surface interval.

Great pipefish (Syngnathus acus)

Dive 2:

Depth: 27m, Time: 49 min, Temp 13 C

After a surface interval, we once again headed out into the water, now it had really become dark, so we were really hoping for squids this time around. Me and my buddy swam out the same way as we did the dive before before descending. When we got visual contact with the bottom, we started swimming slightly towards the right side, where we usually don't dive, in order to check for squids there maybe. After a while we once again started to swim towards the left instead, hitting the mud slopes once more. But no squids were seen by us on this dive either unfortunately, maybe it was due to the slightly mixed waters from 10 to 20 m depth that kept them away from our path.

We ended the dive at 49 minutes, got up and started make ready to head back home again.

All in all, it was a nice day for diving, even if the squids didn't show up this time.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Common hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus)