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

Skår 31/7 2021- Drills and learning experiences.

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we went to the dive site Skår, which is close to the ferry over the fjord, and one of our outermost dive spots in Gullmarsfjorden. This day the plan was to do some exercises at the end of the dives, and maybe some during the dives. So after getting the gear out of the cars, and kitting up, we divided into dive pairs, made our plans, and headed out for the first dive.

Orange brown aeolid crawling along the silt of the bottom.

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 57 minutes, Temp: 17 C

We descended almost immediately, following the slope downwards, while descending, i tried another way of equalizing the ears, which worked somewhat well, gotta practice that more. The visibility was not too bad this day, a bit of particles in the water, but not the worst I've seen. The water temperature was almost disgustingly warm, with the thermocline at about 20 m depth. Several haloclines could be observed, though not as clearly as some other places, being more like a haze at certain depths.

We swam about for a bit before turning around and swimming back. As we had planned earlier, we deployed the surface marker buoys from 12 m in order to train for free water ascent, though I had to wait until we reached about 7 m, as my line was that long at maximum. So we deployed our buoys, and started ascending slowly, just hanging in the lines. It took some effort to deploy the buoy, so that is something I need to work on too.

We surfaced at 57 minutes, got up and doffed the gear at the site, preparing for a nice surface interval.

Once again, a beautiful Dahlia anemone, one of the prettiest sea anemones out there.

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 58 minutes, Temp: 17 C

After a surface intervall, with some food, and also some rain, we once again headed out in the water. This time, we decided to keep a bit closer to the second dive group, as one of the divers had felt a bit nauseous on the previous dive, so in case they needed to thumb the dive, their buddy would have a secondary buddy from our pair. Either way, we descended together with the other group, but soon it became clear that they were doing ok, so we left them be and continued on our way. On this dive, many Rock gunnels were out and about, unfortunately, they weren't very keen to be photographed, so I didn't get any photos of them. We continued for a bit before it was time to turn around once more. Like the dive before, we deployed the surface marker buoys at 12 m (7 m for me) to drill both free water ascent and deploying buoy. This time, it went a bit better, but still need to work on that. We surfaced at 58 minutes, got up and ended the dives for the day.

All in all, it was a nice dive day, and I clearly need to work on some skills and drills. Oh well.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

The zoantharian Isozoanthus sulcatus, a small colonial cnidarian

Fossen 12/6 2021 Sun, wind, water and getting chased by No Deco Limits

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we went to the Fossen camping dive site, as this is a site we don't dive as often, while also being a popular dive spot with some facilities for divers and guests. This time we had a newer diver with us, as well as someone who needed a "de-rust" dive after not diving for a few month.

Well either way, We arrived to the site and saw that there wasn't as many divers there this day, making parking much easier, got out of the car and started setting up gear for the dives. After some uncertainties of the buddy pairs got fixed up, we started heading out into the water for the first dive.

Dahlia anemone, a beautiful "not flower" in the sea

Dive 1:

Depth 30m, Time: 56 min, Temp: 15 °C

Me and my buddy started swimming outwards, and soon realized that the waves was going to make the surface swim rough, so we instead opted to start descending and start the dive a bit earlier. So we descended and started following the bottom outwards. As we reached the cliff edge, we encountered one of the other pairs (and a thermocline), the pair with the newer diver, which seemed to have some issues with their buoyancy right there and then, so me and my buddy hung around for a little bit and watched, to see if our other friend would need assistance with the new diver. But after a while, the newer diver got their trim in somewhat of a control, and no issues seemed to arise right there and then. So me and my buddy continued to descend, following the cliff wall downwards and towards the right side. 

After a bit, it was time to turn around and starting to swim back, which we started to do, but right as we did this, i spotted two rather fine Dahlia anemones a bit further down, which i decided to take some photos of. Unfortunately due to me getting low to NDL, i could only take good photos of one of them. Either way, as we neared the end of our dive, we came into the area with a eelgrass meadows, as it turned out, the sun was in a very good position right there and then, so the way the light hit the water and the meadow was indeed photogenic, so on the safety stop, i spent the time hanging about, trying to take photos of the eelgrass, which wasn't easy, as the wave energy could be felt at this depth, thus disturbing the photographing somewhat. We surfaced at 56 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, preparing for a surface interval in the sun.

Eelgrass meadow, full of eelgrass anemones

Dive 2:

Depth 31m, Time: 49 min, Temp: 15 °C

After a 1 h surface interval, me and my buddy once again donned our scuba gear and got into the water for a second dive. We once again descended early, as the waves were still going straight into the bay of the dive site. This time however, we went almost straight out from the  shore, finding the cliff edge after a little while, and starting to descend following the cliff downwards. As we descended, i spotted a small, thin, wormlike form on the cliff, with a closer look, i determined it was a ribbon worm of some kind (when i got home and looked it up, it turned out to be a Football jersey worm). We continued following the wall downwards in a similar fashion to the previous dive. Soon however, it became time to start going upwards, as we both were running quite low on NDL time, This time however, we were both chased quite severely by the NDL. After turning around and starting to swim back, me and my buddy encountered a relatively big lobster underneath a set of rocks at about 12 m depth, which we stayed to look at (and in my case, photograph) for a bit, before the NDL time started to run low once more. As we continued for a bit, we encountered a second big lobster, this one a bit more shy compared to the previous one. We surfaced at 49 minutes, got up and started disassembling our gear and prepared to go home.

All in all, it was a super nice day for diving, even if the winds came from a bad direction for this site.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Football jersey worm (Tubulanus annulatus), a ribbon worm with a appetite for polychaetes

Dive trip to Koster marine national park 15/8-16/8 2020

Hi and ho!  

This weekend it was time for the first official dive trip of the year, after having put off doing such a thing due to the current happenings in the world. So we went up to a dive operator called Bröderna Klemmings Dykhjälp, a operator that goes to Sweden's first and largest marine national park, the Koster sea national park. The park is also known to house a very rich marine life, among the most abundant in all of Sweden.

So, without further ado, let's get the stories rolling :)

Orange-clubbed nudibranches

Dive 1: Morö (the ravine)

Depth: 22 m, Time: 56 min, Temp: 18 °C

Our first dive was done at Morö, in a area known as "The Ravine", this area consists of a set of ravines that slopes down to various depths, in these ravines, many fish like to hide, and skates have been spotted on occasion in the deeper parts. 

So, me and my buddy descended into the water, which was vibrantly blue and very clear for being Sweden. Unfortunately, there was also a veritable minefield of Lion's Mane jellyfish, which made the first moments of the dive a bit nervous. But as soon as we got a bit deeper, it cleared up with the jellies. We swam through a few ravines slowly, as one does when one photographs. 

As we were swimming in the kelp forests between two ravines, I spotted something small sitting on a leaf of kelp, when I took a closer look, I saw that it was two Orange-clubbed nudibranches, so as my buddy was a bit further away filming something else, I spent some time photographing the nudibranches.

After about 30 minutes, it became time to turn around and go back towards the surface, as we had said to the dive leader that we would be down for a maximum of 60 minutes. So we turned around and swam back, photographing and filming as we went. When we neared the surface, there was still quite the number of jellyfish around, which made surfacing a interesting exercise. We surfaced in a orderly fashion, got into the boat once more and went back to dry land for lunch and gas filling.

Very vividly red and beautiful dahlia anemone

Dive 2: Stora Hjälmen.

Depth: 26 m, Time: 52 min, Temp: 16 °C

After lunch and some resting in the sun, we set out for the second dive of the day. This time, we went to a spot called Stora Hjälmen, which was a bit further north from our starting point, inside the Koster national park. When we arrived at the site, we found that it was quite not as calm as we expected, nonetheless, we jumped into the water, descended and began following the wall downwards. After a while, my buddy spotted something in a crevice, when I got closer, I saw that it was a very vividly red dahlia anemone, which I of course spent a few minutes photographing. As we continued, we got down quite deep, which meant we had not as much time until we would hit decompression time limit. So, we had to ascend to shallower depth rather quickly, during this ascent, I spotted a red sun starfish on the cliff, which I quickly snapped a few photos of. When we neared the end of the dive we got into a crevice where we really felt the waves shoving us back and forth as we lay in the water, which was rather fun, if a bit disorienting. So when we started nearing the said end time, we ascended to the surface. At the surface, we had to swim for quite a bit as we got up a bit too close to the cliff.

Cuckoo wrasse male, the photo is less than ideal, but wrasses are skittish and hard to photograph

Dive 3: Bergylteskär.

Depth: 30 m, Time: 63 min, Temp: 16 °C

After a good nights sleep, we got up and got ready to head out to a new dive day. So we loaded into the boat and headed to a site known as Bergylteskär, which is right smack in the Koster national park. When we arrived at the site, the captain of our boat spotted something in the distance, it took me a while to see what it was, but it turned out to be three porpoises, which began swimming around us as we got a bit closer. When they then grew tired of us and left, we went to the dive site and prepared to get into the water. We anchored in a sheltered bay and jumped into the waters, swam out through a narrow gap between the cliffs, and started descending into the dive. On this site, there was a lot of rock formations in the beginning, making for a nice place to look for larger crustaceans like lobsters and crabs. One lobster I spotted, a smaller individual was quite scared of me, and kept backing into it's little burrow, so after I got some quick photos, I left it alone again. As me and my buddy kept swimming, we found ourselves at a wall, which descended to approximately 40 m depth, as one could see the bottom from our position, which was quite far from the bottom itself. We kept following this wall, photographing and filming as we went. After a while, we once again got closer to no-deco time limit. So we went up to shallower depth quickly once more. After a while, we decided to end the dive and ascend to the surface, as there was not much more to photograph or film due to swell.

We surfaced and got back into the boat and  got back to land for rest and lunch.

A very photo-shy European lobster.

Dive 4: Sadeln.

Depth: 26 m, Time: 52 min, Temp: 16 °C

For the last dive of the trip, we went to a site closer to the starting point, called Sadeln, We had heard that this was a good spot for nudibranches, as well as various kinds of fish and crustaceans. So me and my buddy rolled into the water and prepared to dive. We descended and started following the wall, swimming slowly, as we always do when photograph. On this dive there was a lot of different kinds of wrasses among the rocks and crevices, large cuckoo wrasses and ballan wrasses, smaller goldsinny wrasse and corkwing wrasse. At one point, my buddy seemed to have challenged a sizable European lobster to a duel, which was rather amusing to watch (my buddy won btw). Then, when we were starting to go more shallow, I spot something laying in the kelp, when I got closer, I see that it is an Angler-fish, so i quickly signalled to my buddy and we spent quite a while around the angler-fish photographing and filming it. After a while, we decided that it was enough loafing about and time to get moving again, following the cliff we got up to a shallow plateau with a lot of kelp and other brown algae. Here we decided to stay a bit, unfortunately my camera was out of batteries at this point, so no photos from there. When our time was up, we ascended to the surface and ended the dive.

All in all it was super nice dive trip, something we have to do more if there is time and money to do so, jellyfish blooms notwithstanding.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Anglerfish, look at this mug 😆

Diving weekend in Norway 13/12-15/12 2019. Rusty wrecks and new divers

Hi and ho!

Torsk (Gadus morhua)

It's been a while since the last post. This time, along with Chalmers Diving Club, I was on a weekend trip to Norway, more specifically at Prodykk Oslo, north of Drøbak. The goal of this trip was to dive around wrecks, which were available for both beginners and more advanced divers at this dive site

Dahlia anemone (Urticina felina)

The first dive was a night dive 13/12, When we arrived in Norway we received a message that an acquaintance of the issuer had the time and desire to show us a local place called Hvitsten Torg. We walked in from a sandy beach and waded out a bit before going down and swimming west along a wall. On the soft bottom, there were plenty of Valthorn snails or Kongesnegle as they are called in Norwegian. On the wall were all sorts of sessile and crawling animals, such as sea anemones and sea drills.



The second dive day 14/12, Started with a porridge breakfast and some sandwiches before we went to the dive site with the recently graduated divers at Prodykk Oslo's premises, where all the wrecks were available. Getting the equipment in order took a while, but after a while most people could get in the water and start diving. We swam around the various wrecks and looked at various animals hiding in them or sitting on them. The weather on the surface left a lot to be desired, with rain, snow mixed rain and generally wet.

Common whelk (Buccinum undatum)

The third day started just like the second day, with a porridge breakfast and preparation of a lunch consisting of cheese sandwiches with toppings. This time we switched around the diver and did some other dives. During this dive, I managed to navigate fairly well, as my dive buddy and I came up about where we started. On today's second dive, some of us planned more experienced to go down on a wreck that was a little deeper. However, it turned out that one of us had problems with his suit hose and therefore had to cancel his dive. Due to a misunderstanding between us that remained, we went up instead of continuing down towards the wreck. When we straightened out the misunderstanding we felt we had too little air left to continue to the wreck, so we decided to dive under the jetties instead. We held on for a while until we felt it was time to get out of the water.

Aeolidia papillosa

As mentioned earlier, the weather was not optimal for comfortable diving at all. But all in all, it was pretty nice after all :)

So until next time, Keep on swimming!

Cerianthus lloydii

Ormestad 28/4-2019, Krabbor, Hummer och cylinderrosor

Henricia spp

Tjenare!

Cylinderros (Cerianthus lloyidii)

I helgen var jag tillsammans med CDK ute på dagsutfärd till Sveriges enda och bästa tröskelfjord, Gullmarsfjorden, närmare bestämt, Ormestad. Denna dykplats består av 2 olika sorters dyk: Simmar man åt vänster förbi båthamnen kommer man till en klippa som sluttar rakt ner i vattnet. Följer man denna klippa kommer man till en vägg som går rakt ner till ca 80m. På detta väggdyk ser man ofta Påfågelrörmask, sjöpungar och diverse fiskar och skaldjur i skrevorna. Är säsongen rätt (mellan Januari till Juni) kan man även med god chans se trollkrabbor sitta lite varstans från 12m och neråt. Simmar man åt höger istället kommer man till en botten som sluttar neråt i platåer i typisk gullmars-stil. Här kan man mycket fisk och nässeldjur som lever på mjukbotten samt även krabbor, havskräftor och ibland även rocka!
 Just på denna dyktur såg jag cylinderrosor, krabbtaskor, trollhummrar och en liten hummer bland stenarna och ute på lerbotten. Vi var lite oroliga med vädret då prognosen sa att det skulle regna under dagen. Men när vi kom fram till dykplatsen så var det bra väder, och det blev bara bättre under dagen.
Sikten var god under dyket, med några få lager av dåligare sikt på grund av olika salthalter. Temperaturen börjar närma sig 10 grader i ytan så man känner att sommaren kanske har börjat komma :)
Det är nästan så att man börjar känna sig lite lätt bortskämd med alla bra dyk man har haft på sistone.

Ser fram emot nästa dyk och vad som kan tänkas ses där.
Så tills nästa gång. Simma lungt

Havsros (Urticina felina)

Europeisk Hummer (Homarus gammarus)

Nu sätter vi igång!

Hej och hå på böljan den blå!

Detta blir det första inlägget i denna blogg, vilken kommer att handla om dykning i framförallt nordiska vatten, med diverse bilder jag tagit på faunan då jag anser att man inte behöver åka till tropikerna för att kunna hitta vackra organismer under havets yta. Så nu till själva huvuddelen av bloggen.
I helgen var jag, tillsammans med Chalmers Dykarklubb, ute på påskdykutfärd hos Diveteam i Lysekil.

Porania pulvilus - Kuddsjöstjärna

Totalt 4 båtdyk genomfördes i rask takt över helgen med vår båtförare "Flex", samt ett par landdyk efteråt. Dykförhållandena var i det närmaste perfekta, strålande sol, varmt i luften och nästan ingen vind överhuvudtaget. I vattnet var det kristallklart och 6-7m sikt ner till 15m. Dock något kallt (5-7C), men inget som inte en torrdräkt kan råda bot på.
Allt i allt var det en i det närmaste perfekt dykutfärd för oss som gillar naturdyk :)
Ser fram emot nästa dyk och vad man kan tänkas hittas där.

Så tills nästa gång, Simma lugnt!

Tritonia hombergii 

Havsros - Urticina felina