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

5/11 2022 Diversnight

 Hi and ho!

Once again, it has become time for Diversnight, the international yearly event for night diving, and like usual, me and my buddy went to Släggö in Lysekil to join up with the dive centre there at their event. This year was much fewer divers compared to earlier years, but i guess the somewhat dire weather forecast was to blame for that, with strong winds and rain being the prevailing forecast on the day. 

Goldsinny wrasse (Ctenolabrus rupestris)

Depth: 30 m, Time 58 min, Temp: 12 C

We descended early as the wind and waves were battering straight into the bay of Släggö, making a longer surface swim undesirable this day, well under the surface, it was much calmer, though one could still feel the waves in the shallow areas. We swam along in good pace and quickly found the line that leads downwards and out on the soft bottom, so we started following it ever so slightly. Well out on the soft bottom we saw that the squat lobsters were out and about, as they usually are after sundown, and unlike daytime, they are less timid, which is nice for photography :)

As we swam along the line, we soon came to the part of Släggö at 25 m where there seem to be a perpetual haze since about early 2020 (no really, before 2020, there was no such haze down there). Either way, in this haze there wasn't really much to see, some swimming crabs and squat lobsters scurrying about, but nothing of particular interest. As we started to near our no deco time-limit, we started to make our way upwards, and also back towards the starting point, as I wanted at least 1 h long surface interval before doing the second dive, the official diversnight-dive.

We surfaced at 58 minutes, got up and doffed our gear quickly before heading up to the dive centre to partake in the diversnight cake (this is a very important part of the event).

Spiny squat lobster (Galathea strigosa), one of many

Dive 2: Diversnight official dive.

Depth 16 m, Time 55 min, Temp: 12 C

We were a bit behind schedule, but alas, it wasn't more than like 2 minutes delay for us, so it wasn't the whole world really. Either way, we decided to dive towards the right side of Släggö, keeping it shallow as we hadn't really had a 1 h surface interval, while also looking for squids, as now is the season for them. But to no avail, the squids did not show up on this dive, even though we were in the area they frequent during this time of the year. Instead, we saw quite a few Harbour swimming crabs and smaller codfish, in addition to this, we also saw at least one reticulated dragonet, a species that officially only has been seen once in Sweden (to be honest, i suspect that this is a very easily overlooked species and might be more common than one think, it just looks very much alike the other two known species in the area).

Not much interesting of note on this dive, which we ended at 55 minutes.

All in all, it was some nice night dives, though the absence of squids was a bit disappointing.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Reticulated dragonet (Callionymus reticulatus)

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

Lysekil 7/11 2020, A different divers night

Hi and ho!

This weekend me and my buddies were to go to Divers Night, the yearly international night dive event. And like previous years, we went to Lysekil and Släggö for this. We arrived at Släggö in regular fashion, however this time, me and a friend had decided to go with Nitrox in our tanks instead, meaning that we needed to get them filled at the local dive center, which took longer than expected, nonetheless we got our gas after a while, and got ready for the first dive of the evening.

The Hooknose is not a fish that is easy to photograph, it is rather skittish

Dive 1:

Depth: 24 m, Time: 62 min, Temp: 12 °C

We kitted up and jumped into the water, almost immediately, we started descending and began swimming outwards the depth, if a bit slower than i am used to, Unfortunately this day was a bit wavy, meaning that one could feel the waves going even quite a few meters underwater. So macro photographing was less than ideal in those conditions. But as soon as one got deeper down, the back and forth of the waves stopped being an issue. We soon found the sunken boat, which we spent some time swimming around. After a while, we were starting to hit the turn around time, as well as the turn around pressure, so we began slowly making our way back towards the starting point. We surfaced at 62 minutes and swam back to the starting point once more.

Shorthorn Sculpin, a species that just lays there and let themselves be photographed usually

Dive 2:

Depth: 22 m, Time: 55 min, Temp 12 °C

This was the official Divers night dive, we registered in the dive center,  kitted up on the pier and signed off to jump in. Unfortunately, i tore the strap on my mask right as we were getting in, so i had to quickly ask for my buddy's spare mask. Said and done, we jumped into the water and almost immediately started descending. Once again, my we went very slowly in the shallow part. Not much of note on this dive, other than the waters being quite illuminated by all the other divers around us. We swam around for a bit before it became time to turn around, it was around this time that my dive light really started to mess around, so i turned it off and turned on my spare light instead. We surfaced at 55 minuted, and my sinuses was about done by then.

All in all, while the visibility was less than good, it was a rather nice Divers night.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Tube anemone, not closely related to sea anemone