Släggö 19/3 2023 Cold cold waters and nudis galore!

Hi and ho!

Been a while since i managed to get time to blog, mostly due to having a course that took more time than expected. Well, either way, i should be back now (knock on wood).

This week we went to Släggö, our "bad weather" site, as the weather was forecasted to be rainy and windy, making having a roof over where you change into dive gear a godsend.

As we got there, we talked to another diver that had just finished diving and got the tip that there was next to nothing to be seen on the deeper soft bottoms and that there was a lot of nudibranchs in the shallow area, so we decided to do some really shallow dives and look for them.

Rough doris (Onchidoris muricata) on a piece of algae.

Dive 1:

Depth: 3 m, Time: 37 min, Temp: 3 C

We jumped in and got our bearing on the surface before we started to descend almost immediately. As soon as we got under the surface, I realized that the visibility this day was quite bad, as it had been raining and blown into the harbour during the night. We skimmed and scoured the bottom for nudibranchs, as they usually are very tiny and hard to find unless you look very carefully. We swam around in the bay of Släggö for a while until one of us was starting to feel cold, and that is when we thumbed the dive and went up. We got up and doffed the tanks, making ready for a surface interval with hot drinks.

Nudibranch of genus Amphorina on a piece of sea lettuce.

Dive 2:

Depth: 3 m, Time 20 min, Temp: 3 C

After a bit of a surface interval with hot blueberry soup (the best when you are diving this time of the year), we decided to head into the water again. Same dive plan as before, but we were aware that it might be kept shorter due to the chill in the waters. We descended almost immediately and started looking for nudibranchs once more. After about 20 min, one of us signalled that they were feeling cold, and we thus went up to the surface, ending the dive day.

Despite the forecast telling of rain, the rain never came while we were diving, instead starting ever so slightly when were on our way home again.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Fourstripe nudibranch (Polycera quadrilineata), a very variable species of seaslug