Jordfalls hamn 9/6 2024 Eh? is this thing still on?

Hi and ho!

Ok, it really has been a while, and not much diving has happened due to various reasons, and it seems like that will be continuing for a bit more.

Either way, managed to get a dive day during the weekend, so am quite satisfied with that, the spot was Jordfall marina, the go-to for easy but interesting diving. On this dive i also did some collecting of samples that i volunteered to do for a scientific study

Horseman anemone on a rocky outcropping

Dive 1: 

Depth 28 m, Time 54 min, Temp 9 C

Me and the buddy waded out into the bay as usual, our plan was to dive towards the right as there was a lot of people on the site on this day (a local dive centre having a small excursion there too). We had asked beforehand how the visibility was on this day (kind of windy), and had gotten the answer that above 15 m, the visibility was bad, while below, it was ok-ish. Said and done, we descended in line with the outer edge of the innermost jetty, and as it was said, the visibility was quite bad on the way down. 

Establishing visible contact with the bottom, we stopped up a bit and made sure that everything was a-ok before continuing on our merry way towards the right, following the soft sediment slope downwards. At about 18-20 m, the visibility cleared up a bit and actually got pretty decent, it was also around here where the thermocline sat, going from 15 C to about 9-10 C quite quickly (and one could feel that). We swam past anchoring blocks for the floating jetties, forests of Peacock feather-duster worms (Sabella pavonina) and huge fields of the soft bottom hydroid Corymorpha nutans. At about 25 m, we found a smaller area of rocky outcroppings, which had some of the hydroids i was ordered to sample (family Tubulariidae), so sampling was carried out with a little bit of shaking and swearing (those things really got stuck easily on our gloves). After doing the sampling things, we continued further. As we started to run lower on the NDL, we turned around and started swimming back, following the slope upwards. Soon after turning around, we came across another rocky outcropping that housed a huuuuge Horseman anemone (Urticina eques) with beautiful patterns, not the typical colouration though, a tad bit redder that one. At about 18 m depth on the way back, we encountered a field of tires and various pieces of trash, which i sort of marked in my log, so that we know the depth (because positioning underwater is next to impossible). As we got to our safety stop, the current had turned and was flowing outwards, which dragged all the lion's mane jellyfish out from the shallow waters and our way, so we spent the safety stop dodging and weaving from jellyfish stingers.

We ended the dive at 54 minutes, got up and made ready for a surface interval in the sun :)

Norwegian red sea cucumber (Parastichopus tremulus), a species that you usually see a bit deeper down

Dive 2:

Depth: 30 m, Time 40 min, Temp 10 C

After hanging out in the sun, we headed out once more to dive, this time, we planned to dive towards the left side, along the more common route of Jordfall marina. We descended and began following the slope outwards and to the left, soon hitting the "forest" of Tall Sea-pen that is present at around 25 and down in this area. We swam around a bit before it was time to start heading up, on about 24 m, we came across the rocky cliffs that goes down in a "stair steps" sort of way, forming plateaus at various depths, it was also here we found a large swath of Tubulariidae hydroids, where another sample was promptly taken. It was at this point that my NDL started to get real low, and we had to speed up our ascent a little. The NDL didn't quite clear either until we reached about 12 m.
Either way, we did our safety stop and ended our dive at 40 minutes, making it a little shorter than normal for the summer season.

All in all, it was nice to be back in the waters again for a proper dive

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Spotted dragonet (Callionymus maculatus) on the soft sediment bottom