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

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

Hällebäck 4/12 2022

 Hi and ho!

This week me and my buddies headed for Hällebäck together with some people from the Lindome dive club (a club my dive club has close connections with), the weather while a bit cloudy, was quite ok for this time of the year.

Fountain anemone (Sagartiogeton laceratus)

Dive 1:

Depth: 30 m, time: 48 min, temp: 10 C

Me and my buddy decided to do the first dive towards the left side of the dive site, as the right side is better when it is dark outside. The left side has a stair-like area of cliff shelves where it in the spring usually is good for finding king crabs, but as it is autumn, no king crabs, but instead other critters were present, such as hermit crabs, wrasse and sea anemones of different species. However, on this dive I somewhat struggled to find the balance in the water, which went on the whole dive really, just couldn't find the balance i usually got for this kind of thing. The shutter trigger for the camera housing was also acting up, so have to fix that too. Either way, got some ok photos on this dive. When we hit our margin time for No Deco Limit, we started to go more shallow, while also making our way back towards the start of the dive site. 

We surfaced at 48 minutes, got up and made ready for a surface interval with hot drinks.

Close up of a bobtail squid

Dive 2: 

Depths 23 m, time: 47 min, temp: 10 C

Once we had done a bit of a surface interval, and the sun had been down for a little bit, we once more headed out for a dive. This time, we were joined by another person from Lindome dive club, while my other buddy was making ready, me and the Lindome person discussed some plans and signs, as they most likely wanted to continue the dive when we were going to turn around, and as they are a experienced solo diver, that was OK with me. So, once my other buddy was ready to go, we swam out a little bit from the pier we jumped in from before starting to descend. We quickly descended to about 5-6 m and started following the bottom outwards, looking for squids. And at about 20 something meters, i do indeed spot one (the only one on this dive), so we stayed around it for a little bit (and it probably got annoyed with us). The rest of the dive was quite uneventful, and as me and my buddy signalled to turn around, the Lindome person signalled that they wanted to continue the dive on their own, so we just left them to their own devices, as we had discussed before. Me and my buddy swam along the slope, slightly upwards and to the left side. At about 8 m, I spotted a very blue coloured baltic prawn, which I of course had to photograph, and while the shutter trigger was still acting up, I got some decent photos of it.

Me and my buddy surfaced at 47 minutes, got up from the water and started to doff our gear making ready to head home again.

All in all, this was a very nice dive day, even if the waters in the surface are cold right now at 8 C (still warm by February standards though).

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

A very blue Baltic prawn (Palaemon adspersus)

Jordfall 5/2 2022 We are once again, back in business

 Hi and ho!

It has been a while for sure, I had to take a somewhat unwilling surface intervall due to a tendon inflammation in the thumb muscle, which made some movements painful to do, but after making a visit to the doctor and getting it checked out (and getting a thing to make resting the muscle a bit easier) I decided it was time to make a comeback to diving. 

Close up of the Norway king crab

Dive 1:

Depth: 31 m, Time: 48 min, Temp: 6 C

We planned to swim straight out until we reached max depth and then turn towards the left side over the soft mud slope in order to look for king crabs, as we had heard from some divers on the site that there had been some spotted. So we swam out a bit closer to the cliff before starting to descend into the water. As we descended, we realized that the visibility was ever so slightly not ideal, but not the worst I've seen on this site. After about 10 minutes, one of my buddies signalled that i was to come and look at something, turned out this something was a rather large Norway king crab. So we spent several minutes following it, trying to photograph and film it, which wasn't easy, as there were some severe silting around as we followed it downwards. After getting tired of harassing the poor crab, we turned and started swimming towards the left, looking for squids and other creatures of the soft sediment bottom. But nothing of note was really seen there. After a while, I signalled that we were to turn around, as i thought we had been down long enough, and so we did. As we neared the end, one of my buddies signalled that they were freezing, so they were to head up a bit quicker than me and my other buddy, though, we were not that far behind in terms of safety stop and whatnot. We ended the dive at 48 minutes, got up and doffed our tanks, preparing for a short surface interval.

Common bobtail squid on the bottom

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 42 min, Temp: 6 C

After a short surface interval, me and my second buddy headed out for a second dive. Our other buddy choose to stay on the surface, as they were still feeling cold due to a leaking glove. We once again swam out into the bay and out to the outer point of the marina before starting to descend. The visibility was still as bad as the previous dive, but that didn't deter us then, and wouldn't deter us now either.

At about 9 minutes in, i spot a small shape over the bottom, which with a closer look turned out to be a squid, so squid season is still going strong. Other than that, the dive wasn't really that eventful, but it sure was nice to get back into the waters again. 

We surfaced at 42 minutes, got up and started getting ready to pack up and head home.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, even if the visibility was on the not so good side and the temperatures were a bit on the low side. 

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Common grey sea slug going about its business 

Dive trip 3/12- 5/12 2021. Club excursion to the "polar region".

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, the dive club had their yearly winter excursion to Lysekil, combining it with the last parts of the CMAS** course we've had during the autumn. The weather was clear but windy, which in combination of damp ocean air and minus degrees temperatures was really cold if i have to be totally honest. like really freaking cold even. But regardless, we still went diving :)

Rock gunnel (Pholis gunnelus) hiding in the algae on the bottom

Dive 1:

Depth: 18 m, Time 25 min, Temp: 6 C

After some retakes due to insufficient weighting, somewhat leaky drysuit (not mine this time) and other stuff, we started descending quite close to the pier in Släggö, We began swimming outwards, following the sloping downwards. I have to admit that i did get a bit lost and we went a bit too diagonal to reach the usual spots of Släggö, instead we swam out over the soft bottom slope where one usually finds squids during night dives. But as it was daytime, no squids to be seen. Not much of note on this dive. But as we neared the 10 m mark, my buddy started corking, i tried to turn them around and get their  gas out of their suit, but that proved unsuccessful and i had to let them cork while i quickly ascended to the surface to make sure they were ok, which they were. We then swam back to the starting point and got up from the water. When we got up, my buddy told me they were soaking wet, which is less than ideal when it is sub zero temperatures in the air as well as quite windy.

Small frilled anemone on the side of a sunken rowboat

Dive 2:

Depth: 20 m, Time: 50 min, Temp: 6 C.

After lunch and some time to rest, it was time for the night dive part of the course, and of course the other non-course participants like me were doing a night dive as well, no way we were gonna miss this. Well, my previous buddy didn't participate due to their suit being sopping wet and that we discovered that there were holes in the arm seals (and the neck seals was extremely bad too, the dive centre really shouldn't have even had this one out for renting i feel). So i dived with another group instead on this dive. We entered the waters and descended almost immediately in order to look for the lumpsucker that has set up shop. We didn't see it this dive, but alas, tis fine, I've seen it quite a few times already. We started swimming diagonally across the bottom, heading towards the area where one usually can see the squids. At about 18 m, we encountered the thermocline, which was really quite deep down this time. Here it was about 10 C, but as we didn't stay for too long either, we didn't get to enjoy it for quite as long. After turning around and swimming back for a little bit, i noticed a small shape on the bottom, finally, a squid! So of course i had to stay a little bit and photograph the critter. As i was photographing, some of the other dive pairs came up to us to look at the little squid. We swam back and surfaced at 50 minutes, got up and started loading our gear into the car, preparing to go back to the hotel.

The squid!

Dive 3: 

Depth: 12 m, Time: 30 min, Temp: 6 C

On the second day of diving, we first went to Släggö once more for some of the last course stuff, and to just have a nice easy dive after breakfast. I paired up with my buddy from yesterday and we jumped into the water in short order. We quickly descended after that and almost immediately found the lumpsucker hanging out. Unfortunately, i had forgotten to remove the camera cover, so no photos of the lumpsucker this time, as i had to faff about with removing the lens cover underwater, with drygloves on (i managed to do that, but by then the lumpsucker had moved away) Well either way, we continued for a bit more along the bottom, following the line and the slope. While my buddy did have some issues with buoyancy and trim, they did sometimes lie really beautifully in the waters :)

Well either way, at about 12 m, i sort of felt that we shouldn't go deeper, as my buddy was flailing around quite severely right there and then. So i signalled that we were to turn around, which was probably for the best. We swam back in orderly fashion and i once again got a bit lost on the way back. But it wasn't too badly off course from the pier. We surfaced at 30 min and got up, my buddy said they had been leaking from the neck all dive, so they quickly got into cover to change into dry clothes, as it was still rather windy here.

Dahlia anemone with very clear banding

Dive 4:

Depth: 27 m Time: 51 min. Temp: 10 C

After packing up our things and heading out from the hotel, some of us decided that we were to do a last dive in Skår, the dive site close to the ferry terminal in Gullmarsfjorden. 

Me and my buddy descended quickly as soon as i felt it was deep enough, we soon found the dropp off and followed the wall closely, trying to get to the thermocline as soon as possible. The thermocline was found at about 14 m depth this time, which was quite shallow compared to the thermocline the evening before. Well, either way, we continued following the wall downwards. After about 25 minutes, i made signal  to turn around, as we had to swim back too after all. So we turned around and started to head back. As we neared the end of the dive, i spot a small shape on the sand bottom, turned out to be a sand shrimp, which promptly dug itself down into the sand as soon as i got close, but i managed to snap a few photos before it completely burrowed down. We surfaced at 51 minutes, and it was cold in the surface, so we quickly got up and started to doff our gear. Making ready to get home.

All in all, It was a nice dive trip :)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Sand shrimp (Crangon crangon) peeking out of the sand

Släggö 27/11 2021 In my winter "wonderland"

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we got a sudden case of winter dumped right on us. On saturday, the day we went out diving, it was snowing quite properly, enough to actually make the roads a bit hazardous with slush and a proper snow cover. Either way, we are a crazy bunch and went diving regardless of these weather conditions. When we arrived at the dive site, we saw that they had cut off a large part of the parking lot there for unknown reason (probably to renovate the pier, as it is getting a bit worn really). The wind and snow was whirling so we took shelter underneath roof before changing into drysuits, whereafter we kitted up our gear and made ready to head out.

Greater pipefish hiding among the eelgrass in the shallow parts

Dive 1:

Depth: 26 m Time: 61 min, Temp: 11 C

We jumped in and almost immediately descended, aiming to look for the lumpsucker once again. And lo and behold, after like 1 minute, one of my buddies signalled the rest of us to come over and look, for they had found the lumpsucker. So after staying there for a little bit and stressing out the poor fish, we continued on diagonally towards the right. But after a little bit, one buddy decided that we were to start going straight outwards instead, as we have usually done on Släggö, they felt that we had gone towards the right forever at that point. Either way, we continued to follow the slope downwards and outwards as one does here. At 20 m we started to encounter a haze, something that's usually encountered at 25 and below. Either it is due to weird wind and current conditions going on right now there, or it is bad technical divers with horrible trim (a thing we have seen there indeed) that has stirred up the silt. The visibility continued to be sort of bad down here, though the water temperature was much nicer compared to the surface, a typical trait for when winter season is starting. We swam around for a bit here before starting to make our way towards the rocky wall and then back towards the starting point. When we found the rocky wall, one of my buddies started signalling that they were seeing something in a crevice, turned out to be a lobster, but as i was about to snap a photo, they signalled once more above me, several times, turned out that there was another lobster right above as well, so after quickly snapping a photo of the antennae of the first one, i snapped a quick photo of the second one above before it hid inside the crevice. We continued following the wall back towards the starting point. As we neared the end, we once again encountered the lumpsucker and harassed it for a little bit before we surfaced at 61 minutes. We got up and doffed our gear, preparing for a nice surface interval at the pizzeria close to the dive site.

This Common bobtail squid was posing nicely for the camera

Dive 2:

Depth 17 m, Time: 58 min, Temp: 10 C

After a surface interval in the warm pizzeria, we once again made ready to head out into the water. This time one of my buddies decided to not do a second dive, as they had gotten a bit cold and didn't feel like it was worth it. But me and my other buddy were crazy enough to do another dive on this snowy day. Once again, we descended almost immediately after jumping in and making sure that everything was in order. As we are descending, I shone my light on my right wrist and see that i hadn't closed the ring system completely, so i quietly did that before it started leaking in (not that it really mattered, still haven't fixed the leak in the ring system. We continued diagonally towards the right, hoping to see squids, descending down to a depth of about 17 m. On this dive there was a lot of harbour swimming crabs out and about as well as a few longspined bullheads, a close relative to the more common shorthorn sculpin one usually sees on this site. We did see two squids on this dive, the first one was a bit fiesty, swimming straight into my camera and light, so i had to back away in order to try and get a action shot, which of course was impossible with the gear i use right now. Either way, after 30 minutes i started signalling that we were to turn around. So we began swimming back slowly but surely. We didn't find the lumpsucker on this dive, not that we looked very much either, so that might have been a contributing factor. We surfaced at 58 minutes, got up and started making ready to head home after a nice but cold dive day.

All in all, the weather could have been better, but such things don't really matter too much underwater, so it was a satisfying dive day.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Longspined bullhead, the other relatively common sculpin on the west coast

Släggö 20/11 2021 Squids squids and more squids

 Hi and ho!

This weekend the weather was atrocious, with cold rain and whipping winds, but that matters not really when you are underneath the surface of the sea after all, but on the surface it is less pleasant. So we went to Släggö, as there is roof where one can change into dive gear without getting rained on. Either way, Släggö is a good place to find squids on, which one of the goals were this time around.

Greater pipefish peeking out of some loose algae

Dive 1:

Depth: 29 m, Time: 72 min, Temp: 11 C

We descended almost immediately after jumping in and making sure that everything worked as it should in the water (well minus my leaking ring system, but i'll work on that when i have time), as we had heard that there was a lumpsucker in the shallows close to the pier, after descending we turn around a few degrees and there it was, my photographer buddy kept following it, while i stayed a bit back to wait for it to settle down, but alas, that never happened, so i had to chase it around as well, all while my buddy kept hogging the fish, frustrating me a little bit there. Either way, after we were done stressing the poor fish out (didn't get any photos of it this dive), we started swimming outwards, which took a while as the shallower part does stretch for quite a bit. after 22-ish minutes we finally got to the slope and started to get a bit of depth on our dive. As we got down to about 20 m, the visibility started getting worse and worse with increasing silty haze, the kind that one usually start encountering at 25-30 m depth on this site. In addition, we started encountering currents at these depths, which wasn't too much, but still enough to push us away, so we decided at this point that we were to turn around and get more shallow, where the visibility was much greater. When we crested 16 m, one of my buddies spotted a squid on the bottom, which of course was promptly photographed for a while, it was also around here that I spotted a Great pipefish trying to hide in a piece of loose brown algae. After some dancing around, I managed to snap a few photos of it. We continued upwards, taking it nice and slowly as we usually do, even though it was a bit colder in the water right there and then. On the way up, we spotted two more squids, which naturally got photographed as it usually goes. 

We surfaced after 72 minutes, got up and prepared for a surface interval with hot coco.

Lumpsucker that has set up shop right beneath the most active dive sites on the Swedish west coast

Dive 2: 

Depth: 16 m, Time: 62 min, Temp 10 C

After a surface interval, with some chocolate bars and hot coco, we once more headed into the water, like the first dive, we descended almost immediately after jumping in and quickly found the lumpsucker once more, this time, i managed to snap a few photos of it before I left it be and we continued the dive. On this dive the plan was to keep it more shallow, as there was really not much to see below 20 m depth on this day, instead we headed towards the right side, over the shell gravel bottom, in order to look for more squids. As the bobtail squids we usually find prefer soft mud or shell gravel bottoms. As we swam over the eelgrass beds I spot two rather well camouflaged pipefishes among the eelgrass. Unfortunately they weren't very keen on getting photographed, so that was a bust really, they kept waving back and forth, not letting my camera focus properly, so no photos there, despite my best efforts. We continued along the sloping bottoms, looking for the small shapes or glittering points which signal the presence of squids on the bottom. We managed to find three throughout the whole dive, so i guess that wasn't really so bad. As we swam along, we saw in the distance, lights from other divers, as well as the huge silty cloud that followed them, might have been partially the reason why the site was so silty this time around i suspect. Either way, after 30 something minutes, i signalled that we were to turn around, as we had been in for quite a while at this point. So we turned around and started swimming back to the starting point. At the safety stop, i got a bit bored and started doing some valve drills, which apparently made one of my buddies think i was having some problems, so they came up to me and signalled me that we were to go up. Well, we surfaced at 62 minutes, got up and made ready to go home.

All in all, despite the rain and wind (and leaking suit), it was an enjoyable dive day, with lots of squids.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Action shot of a Common bobtail

Släggö 6/11 2021, Diversnight

 Hi and ho!

This weekend was the weekend of Diversnight, the international night dive event where divers gather and dive together, making the sea light up like the starry skies. Well, the starry skies were very much absent this year, as the surface weather was absolutely atrocious, with winds and pouring rain, right into the dive site, not that it mattered underwater, but just saying.

Grey gurnard crawling along the bottom

Dive 1:

Depth: 26 m, Time 54 min, Temp: 13 C

Me and my two buddies swam out to about the buoy that marks one spot in Släggö, when we reached the buoy, we started descending into the water column, unfortunately, i didn't manage to fix the leak in my glove system, so yeah, there was some slight leakage into the glove, but nothing immediately alarming. Either way, right as we descended and were getting our bearings in the water, i spot a small long shape in the algae and eelgrass, with a closer look it was a Great pipefish trying to camouflage itself. So of course i had to stay a bit to photograph it. After I deemed that I had bothered the pipefish enough, we continued along the slope as we usually do, making a sweep over the soft bottom before heading towards the cliff side. On the soft bottom were the usual suspects of harbour swimming crabs, as well as some grey gurnards crawling across the seafloor. After a little while we turned towards the cliff, so as to have a reference on the way back. As we swam along the wall, we saw that the lobsters and squat lobsters were quite active at the time, as it was dark after all, some even out in the open. We surfaced at 54 min, got up and prepared for a windy and rainy surface interval, though we soon went up to the dive centre to get away from the worst of it.

Common bobtail, one of many encountered this time

Dive 2

Depth: 23 m, Time: 43 min, Temp 13 C

Now this dive was the big Diversnight dive, so me and my buddy jumped into the water, but waited until they rang the clock before descending into the water column. This time we swam towards the right side of the bay, as we had been told that there were squid to be seen over there. After a little bit, my buddy signalled me to come and look at something, turned out to be the first squid of 5, this particular one was standing quite raised up from the bottom, so i stayed for a few minutes to photograph it as it was posing so nicely for me, a real little camera fiend i tell you! We continued after i was done with that squid, following the slope. As we were swimming, i spotted a fishy shape a little bit away, which i promptly swam closer to and saw that it was a Striped mullet, a fish that changes colour depending on time of the day. After photographing it for a little bit, we continued forward, finding many a squid and mullet before we turned around and started making our way back towards the starting point. We surfaced at 43 minutes, got up and doffed our gear before heading towards the dive centre for some grilled hotdogs and relaxing before we were to head home.

All in all, despite the atrocious weather on the surface, it was a nice and successful divers night event :)

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Striped mullet on shell gravel

Ormestad 27/3 2021. Mud and clear waters.

Hi and ho!

This weekend, me and my buddies decided to go dive in the Gullmar fjord, as we reasoned that the ice cover that had been there due to the cold-snap in January to February had to be gone by now. Said and done, we decided that the site of the day was to be Ormestad, the best wall diving spot in the area. Due to rain and melting ground frost, ice and snow, the ground in the area was very soft and muddy (so muddy that we in fact got stuck for a while when we were leaving the site later at night). So, we parked our car, carried our dive gear to the wood pier in the area and geared up for the dive.

Bobtail squid resting on the bottom

Dive 1:

Depth 26 m, Time: 43 min, Temp: 5 °C

We waded out into the water and started swimming towards the cliff on the left side of the bay, as to reach the main attraction of Ormestad, the vertical wall that extends from the surface and down to 90m depth. When we reached the wall we started to descend, following the wall down to an appropriate depth and outwards with the wall to our left. As we descended, we realized that the surface had rather bad visibility, which cleared up after about 5 m, going from 2 m visibility to about 7-10m. On the wall, it was full of sessile organisms like tube worms, sea anemones and sea squirts of different kind. After a little while, it became time to turn around as I hit turn pressure in my tanks. So that we did. At 43 minutes, we surfaced and started to swim back to the wood pier from where we started. During this dive I was testing out the new camera housing trigger (in reality a old one from my previous camera house, the one on my current camera housing broke last week), which worked pretty well, just took a bit more force to take photos.

After we got up, we had a bit of a surface intervall before getting ready for the next dives.

Dive 2:

Tall sea pen, one among many

Depth 28 m, Time 37 min, Temp: 5 °C

After having a surface intervall, we got ready to get into the water, I almost didn't do the dive, as my stomach was feeling like it was acting up a little bit. But soon it calmed down, and I got ready to dive in a jiffy. This dive, we went towards the right side of Ormestad instead, where there is a muddy slope instead of a vertical wall. We followed the slope downwards, looking at (and in my case, photographing) the critters that showed up here. At about 24 m depth, we hit a rather nice "forest" of Tall sea pen, which I stayed around to try and photograph a little bit. After we left the forest, we encountered a bobtail squid resting on the sea floor, which I of course had to photograph as well. Around this time the no deco limit time was starting to run low, so we had to start swimming upwards again. We surfaced at 37 minutes and swam back to shore.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, even if we did get stuck in the mud with the car as we were leaving. 

So until next time! Keep on swimming! 

Rugose squat lobster hiding in crevice 

Jordfall 28/11 2020. Rebreathers, Rays and Rime

Hi and ho!

Common dragonet in front of a Spiny Starfish

This weekend, we got the first real winter temperatures, with below 0 °C temperatures in the air, yet we braved these conditions and went out to go diving. We had decided upon Jordfall, as this is a easy spot, and we were honestly feeling a bit lazy. Said and done, we got to the site, after some "but's" and "if's", assembled our gear and kitted up for the first dive of the day.

Bobtail hiding in the sediment, can't tell which species though

Dive 1

Depth: 27 m, Time: 45 min, Temp: 11 °C

Me and my buddy swam out to the end of the jetty before we started to descend. We had spoke to some divers that had been in the water earlier, and they told us that the visibility was "very bad", but when we started to descend, it turned out to be the rather normal for the area and time of the year. When we got visual contact wit the seafloor, I almost immediately saw two Common dragonets hanging around, unfortunately, one was in a bad position, so I could only photograph the other one.

After photographing the dragonet for a little bit, me and my buddy began following the bottom downwards and outwards on the mud bottom, looking for various stuff. At about 25 m, i spot a little something sticking up in the mud. With a closer look, it turned out to be a larger bobtail squid, very likely a Rossia. sp. So I spent a bit of time photographing it from various angles, when I finally decided that it was enough, it was about time to turn upwards, as no-deco time was running low. So I signalled to my buddy that it was time to turn around and swim upwards, so that we did. As we got close to the cliff wall of  Jordfall, I was hitting turn pressure, so we began swimming back. It was at this point I spotted a small shape close to the cliff wall, turned out to be another bobtail squid, so I was spending some time photographing it before continuing to swim back towards the starting point.

We surfaced at 45 min, got onto land and got ready for a surface intervall.

Sand goby, a small goby that likes to hang out on sandy bottom, hence the name

Dive 2

Depth: 30 m, Time: 35 min, Temp: 11 °C

After a surface intervall, most of us were feeling too cold for a second dive, however, me and another of my buddies were up for one, so we went in. This buddy had gone and got themselves a fancy machine, a Poseidon Rebreather, so they were testing it out this day. We swam out to the end of the jetty once more, and descended into the darkness. When we got visual contact with the bottom, we started swimming outwards following the bottom. After a while, my buddy suddenly signalled that they were seeing something, as i got closer, I see that it is a skate, so we spent a good while hanging around it, while I was photographing it and my buddy was just looking at it. After a while, the skate had enough of us, and we left it alone. The rest of this dive was rather uneventful, as nothing could really top the skate.

We ended the dive at 35 minutes, got up and got ready to head back home.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, with the highlight being the skate

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Close up of the skate, can't really tell which species though

Jordfall 21/11 2020, One stormy evening (but actually not)

Hi and ho!

This weekend, the weather forecast was telling of strong winds and rain, nonetheless we went out with the mentality that "tomorrow's worse, and there is no winds and rain underwater". As the weather was forecasted to be bad, we decided to go to Jordfall marina, as it is a rather protected dive site, with little effects of wind.  Said and done, when we arrived, the rain had already stopped, and the winds were not that bad at all. We surveyed the site, kitted up our gear, made our plans and got ready to get diving. This time the plan was to dive in a group of four, but in pairs more or less.

A little Bobtail squid resting on the bottom.

Dive 1

Depth: 28m, Time: 43 min, Temp: 11°C

We waded out into the water, and soon realized that the visibility was going to be "bad" for at least the first few meters, but either way, we swam out and started descending in the pairs, agreeing to meet up when at the bottom. As we descended, it soon became clear that the visibility was going to stay bad, when we finally got visual contact with the bottom, we could barely see the other pair, only some light that showed where they were, so we swam and met up with them before we continued the dive. We followed the slope downwards, looking for signs of squids and other interesting organisms, though this time there were not that many out, either because of the time of the day, or the decreased salinity of the water column this day due to the rain. The visibility kept being bad, no matter how deep we went. At about 26 m, the other buddy pair starts signaling that they see something, turns out to be a little squid resting on the bottom, so I spent some time photographing that one in particular before we continued, soon it became time to go upwards as the no-decompression limit was nearing. So we went up a little bit, following the muddy slope once more. At about 23 m, I suddenly spot a rather familiar shape, a angular crab that is out walking on the mud, unfortunately, this one was not very photogenic and I had to chase it for a bit before I managed to snap some rather blurry photos for reporting it, nothing to properly show off there.

Either way, it was around this time we lost contact with the other pair, but we had already decided on the surface that if such a thing were to happen, we were to continue the dive as planned, just separately. Said and done, it was at this time I also hit turn pressure, so we just began swimming back, following the slopes and rocky walls. At the stone rubble area, we found the second dive pair, and we spent some time there looking in the nooks and crannies for animals of different kind, though nothing of great interest were found this time.

We soon hit our safety stop depth and hung around there for a little bit before ending the dive. At the surface, we all decided that one dive was enough this day, as the vis was bad and it was kind of cold.

All in all, it was an OK dive, though the visibility was very bad, but hey, at least there was no rain and little to no winds.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

The European Plaice usually stays in one spot, allowing for close-up photographs like this one

Jordfall 31/10 2020. Two more for the list

Hi and ho!

This weekend we once again decided upon doing some night dives, and as usual, the site was decided upon on the way to the sites. Once again it was decided to be in the Jordfall marina, as one of us was there doing their dive master examination, which fit us rather well. Said and done, we arrived at the site late in the afternoon with food and drinks for our buddy at the site, got our gear out and started preparing for the dives. After setting up, we divided into pairs, made our dive plans, geared up and started to get into the water.

Close up of a squat lobster, look how beautiful the colours are.

Dive 1:

Depth: 31 m, Time: 36 min, Temperature: 11°C

Me and my buddy got into the water and swam out to the end of the jetty before we started descending. Like the week before, the surface waters were somewhat brown due to the freshwater flow from land bringing humus into the top layer, but as soon as we got underneath it, the vis cleared up much more. We immediately started following the slope downwards in order to search for squid. As we were swimming downwards, I spot something peculiar at the edge of my light cone, as I got closer I realized it was a crab, and a species I've never seen before. So I started photographing it, unfortunately it was very skittish and started running as soon as I got closer, meaning that there was no close up photo of this one. Later when I had gotten home and had access to my books and sources, I found out that what I saw was an Angular crab (Goneplax rhomboides), a species that is recently immigrated to Swedish waters.

After leaving the crab be, me and my buddy continued our dive, looking for squids and other creatures, but no squids were to be found in the deep this time. After a while, it became time for us to start ascending, as we were both getting low on No Deco Limit time and gas, so we followed the bottom upwards again. As we were starting to come more shallow, with our NDL and gas still good, we decided to start swimming towards the left, and so we did until we found the cliff wall and boulders, there we spent some time looking into the crevices for various creatures, as I was photographing a crab, my buddy started signalling that they were seeing something, as I took a look, I first did not see anything, but after a few seconds of looking, lo and behold! A squid!, so I spent some time there, photographing the critter before I decided that I had harassed it enough and let it be. We ended the dive soon after, as we decided that it was simply time to get up for a nice thermos of hot beverage. Said and done, we got up, took off our dive packages and began discussing the things we had seen during the dive over some hot coffee.

The Angular crab is a species new to the area, the first records of it are from 2008

Dive 2:

Depth: 22 m, Time: 44 min, Temperature: 11°C

After a surface intervall with discussions and warm beverages, we once again got into the water for another dive. This time we went down in the same spot as before, however we started swimming left quite quickly, finding the walls early. We followed the walls during this dive, keeping on average above 20 m. As we were swimming around, I spot a shape close to the bottom, which turned out to be another squid, so we spent some time around the squid as I photographed it. After a while, it became time to turn around as we had been in the water for a while now, meaning that we needed some time to get back to the starting point as well. As we were nearing the end point, I was taking a closer look on some rocks when I spotted a small shape on top of one of them, turned out to be an Bryer's Nut crab (Ebalia tumefacta), a miniscule species of crab that I've never seen before as well, so that one got photographed as well :)

We ended the dive at 44 minutes as we simply had gotten so shallow that i thought it wasn't worth prolonging the dive anymore by then.

All in all, it was a super duper dive day, especially since I got to see two species I've never seen before, as well as squids, always love seeing them squids :)

Bryer's nut crab, a species about the size of a pinky finger nail, thus making it easily overlooked

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Love the Common bobtail squids, they are so cute when they dig down into the bottom like this

Jordfall 24/10 2020. Do you want to do a night dive?

Hi and ho!

Black goby looking a bit unhappy with my photographing

This weekend marked the first night dive of the 2020 autumn-winter season, as well as the end of a long surface intervall for one of my dive buddies. We decided on the way to the Gullmar fjord that we were to go to the Jordfall marina, as it is a easy and good spot for night diving in the Gullmar area. This time around, we had some not so experienced divers with us, which is another reason to choose Jordfall, as it is quite safe to dive there, no sudden drop offs like Ormestad :)

We got to the site in the evening and started to set up our gear, we also did a short dive site presentation and then divided us into pairs and got ready to head into the waters.

Luminecent sea pen, a beautiful creature like always

Dive 1: 

Depth 24 m, Time: 50 min, Temp: 12 °C

Me and my buddy swam out to the cliff, as we had planned to follow the wall during this dive. When we got to the corner of the cliff wall, we signalled to the surface personell and went down. It soon became clear that there was a lid of freshwater which blocked the last rays of the sun from going deeper, meaning that it was like a night dive to begin with. We descended close to  the wall and kept following it down and outwards in the regular way one does in Jordfall. As it was much darker in the water at this time, the marine life was much less shy and let itself be photographed somewhat, which is pretty nice when one loves nature photographing like I do.

We spent some time swimming around, looking at the different things that were out and about by this time before it was time to turn around and go back to the starting point. As we were nearing our safety stop, my buddy suddenly started to cork, which I was kind of expecting, as they had told me beforehand that they have problems with their bouyancy in the end. but alas I could not stop the corking, so we both corked up to the surface with about 2 minutes of safety stop left, which is not quite OK, but not too bad either. We got up to land and doffed our packages for changing tanks.

The harbour crab with it's vivid blue hindleg paddles.

Dive 2: 

Depth 31 m, Time: 37 min, Temp: 12 °C

After a surface intervall with some coffee and talking about the first dive, me and my buddy got ready for the second dive of the evening. This time around, the plan was to go deep and over the soft bottom in order to search for squids, as it had been dark for a while now. Said and done, we swam out to the outermost part of the jetty before signalling to the surface personell and starting to descend. 

When we could see the bottom, we started to follow the slope downwards towards the depth, Looking and photographing as we went. During this dive, i showed my buddy what one can do with the Sea Pen Pennatula phosphorea in the dark. As we swam around, i saw something small over the bottom, lo and behold, a squid, so we spent a few minutes looking at, and photographing the little critter before it was time to go upwards again due to the NDL starting to run low.

We continued upwards in a orderly fashion and ended the dive at a bit of a shorter time than usual, but as it is starting to get colder in the water, it is to be expected tbh

All in all it was a nice dive trip, and a very successful first proper night dive for the season.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

The highlight of this dive trip, a Common bobtail squid digging down into the mud.

Gullmarsfjorden 2/11 2019- Divers Night 19

Hej och hå!

Denna vecka åkte jag med CDK på heldags utfärd till Gullmarsfjorden. Vi började i Jordfall, sikten där var mycket dålig i ytan, som ett brunt lock. Efter att ha kommit ner under detta lock så blev sikten mycket bättre, även om det var mörkt som på ett nattdyk.

Det andra dyket gjorde vi i Lysekil, vid Släggö, Jag och min dykkamrat kunde inte riktigt vänta på att Divers Night, den internationella nattdykskvällen skulle börja, så vi tog tillfället i akt och tog oss ett snabbt dyk innan. Vi simmade runt och tittade, och såg 2 bläckfiskar, massvis med trollhummer och diverse annat. smått och gott

På tredje dyket, själva Divers Night dyket, gick vi ner nästan direkt och simmade runt, tyvärr fick jag besvär och vi fick avbryta dyket efter ett tag.

Det var allt för denna gången

Så tills nästa gång. 

Simma lungt!

Släggö 26/10 2019. Tusen och ett nattdyk

Hej och hå!

Spetskalamar (Alloteothis subulata)

Denna vecka åkte jag tillsammans med min dykkamrat till Släggö ännu en gång (börjar se ett mönster här) för att dyka. Denna gång hade vi för avsikt att nattdyka och leta bläckfisk. Vi hoppade i och insåg att sikten var väldigt dålig, likväl gick vi ner och efter 3 m vart sikten mycket bättre. Vi simmade ut mot djupa mjukbotten, där bläckfiskarna brukar hålla till. Dock lös bläckfiskarna med sin frånvaro där. Istället såg vi massvis med hummer, krabbor och trollhummer vara ute på promenad i det fria, dessa djur brukar vanligtvis sitta gömda inuti klippskrevor och under stenar.
När vi sedan begav oss upp och hade legat på säkerhetsstoppet i 3 minuter, såg jag en liten figur pila förbi min partner. vid närmare undersökning visade det sig att det var en liten bläckfisk, och av en sort som inte brukar hålla till på grunt vatten. Så vi blev kvar ett tag på riktigt grunt vatten och observerade bläckfisken.

Allt som allt var detta ett av de bättre dyken jag haft.
Så tills nästa gång. Simma lugnt!

Blåröd trollhummer (Galathea strigosa)