Smögen archipelagon 17/7 2022 Boat diving and lost fins.

 Hi and ho!

This weekend me and my friends decided to go boat diving on a whim more or less, after calling around a bit, we got some spots on the boat at the Smögen dive center, which lies a bit north of our regular dive spots. After getting up at ungodly times (for a weekend), we managed to get to the dive center with time to spare, so we could kit up in a relatively relaxed pace. After kitting up and getting on the boat, it was time to set out for the first dive.

Dahlia anemone, a closeup

Dive 1: Buskär

Depth: 26 m, Time: 62 min, Temp: 17 C

We rolled off the boat into the water as one does, and after gathering up on the surface, we started to descend. The visibility on this site was pretty ok, if a bit grainy at times. As we neared the bottom, we started to slow down a bit and began swimming along the wall like we had been instructed to do. On this site, there was a lot of plateaus at different depths, differing types of bottom (though not proper soft bottoms, at most it was shell gravel). On the walls, there was a lot of soft corals and different species of algae. I noticed quickly however, that there was some issues with the camera trigger switch, making it a bit hard to take the photos, but i managed to get some at least. After about 30 minutes, we began turning back towards the starting point. At the safety stop, we all deployed our surface marker buoys in order to show the dive boat our position, but as we descended, all three of us almost got jellyfish on us, though I was the first one. We got up at 62 minutes and was picked up by the boat.

Striped flabellina, a species of seaslug I've never seen before.

Dive 2:

Depth: 22 m, Time: 61 min, Temp: 17 C

After a nice surface interval with lunch and snacks. We once again got onto the boat and headed out for our next dive. 

As we rolled in, one of my fins somehow came loose and dropped off my foot and into the depths. Well, after a quick reconvening on the surface, we immediately began descending in order to try and find the fin. Apparently, i need to be better at signalling what is wrong (i guess so?) because it took a while for one of my buddies to realize exactly what was wrong. I think they got the message when i stomped at the bottom with my finless foot in front of them. After about 8 minutes of searching, we managed to find my fin, and at this point, i was a little bit tired from swimming against the current with only one fin, but nonetheless, i decided to continue the dive as i could relax once i got my fin on. As we continued the dive, there was a lot to see, I observed several nudibranchs of note, as well as some spotted sea hares hiding among the algae. 

As we started to head back, we once again became aware that there was a current, and quite a strong one at that, strong enough so that one would struggle to swim against it, either way, both me and my buddy deployed our surface marker buoys to show the boat out positions while we were at our safety stop (we also had to grab onto the seafloor in order to not drift away)

We surfaced at 61 minutes, got picked up by the boat and started to head back to port.

All in all, it was a super nice day of diving.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

A group of Orange-clubbed seaslugs feasting on the bryozoans on a kelp leaf.

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

15/9-18/9 2021. A trip to Flekkefjord, Norway with Chalmers diving club.

 Hi and ho!

Now that our dear neighbour to the west, Norway, has opened their border after a year of plague and uncertainty, my club decided that now was a good time to take up the tradition of doing a longer dive trip to Norway, as the diving there is in a completely different class compared to Sweden. Said and done, the destination of the trip was decided to be Flekkefjord on the south western coast of Norway, reasonably far away from home. There is also a historical wreck there, the wreck of Gudrun, a WW2 ship that is located just outside of Flekkefjord.

Urticina eques, a beautiful anemone closely related to the Dahlia anemone (and hard to differentiate)

Dive 1: Gudrun 1

Depth: 35 m, Time: 46 min, Temp 17 C

We anchored the boat onto the float that marks the position of the wreck of Gudrun. Decided upon dive pairs and headed off into the waters. All divers descended following the rope in quite the quick fashion as a group, almost too quick really as i got some problems with equalizing at 18 m and had to stop for a little bit to clear it, but as soon as that was done we kept going. Gudrun herself came into view at about 20 m, meaning that there was about 7 m visibility straight down on this day. We came down on the rear of the wreck and all swam up to the big steering wheel in order to get the obligatory photos while posing with it. After photos were snapped, we split up into the decided buddy pairs and me and my buddy began swimming around the wreck, looking at the rudder, propeller and all the other things she had to offer. As Gudrun lies quite deep, me and my buddy didn't have that much time on her, even with the best gas mix for the depth we were on. So after a little while, we started to run low on time before deco, so we started swimming back to the rope in the rear and started ascending along it. In order to stretch out the dive as much as possible, I decided to ascend as slowly as humanly possible (and so i could try and photograph the critters on the rope too) As we were slowly making our way up, we started to see the second dive pair further down underneath us, but soon they also were at about the same depth as us at the safety stop. We surfaced at 46 minutes, got up in the boat and got ready for surface interval.

Star ascidian (Botryllus schlosseri), a colonial sea squirt

Dive 2: Torsøy

Depth: 10 m, Time: 65 min, Temp 17 C

The second dive of the day was decided to be closer to the Flekkefjord dive club house, as we had gotten out pretty late, nonetheless, we found a small bay relatively close to the starting point, parked the boat and got into the water. Here the bottom was quite similar to the type i am used to, muddy, with lots of smaller fish and decaying algae. Honestly this was quite a boring dive site, but nonetheless, me and my buddy kept swimming around. We surfaced at 65 minutes, got back into the boat about at the same time as the others, and drove home to the diving club house.

European painted top shell (Calliostoma zizyphinum)

Dive 3: Saueholmene

Depth: 28 m, Time: 62 min, Temp 17 C

We headed out to the outer parts of the archipelago, the weather was perfect, almost too perfect, with almost no waves out in the open and the sun shining brightly. We rolled into the water from the boat close to a cliff wall, swam closer by and started descending as soon as everyone was ready. When we descended, we discovered that this area was an area with plateau's on different levels and waving kelp forests. Though honestly i didn't get to enjoy it quite as much as my dive buddies kept swimming on like they were on some kind of schedule, or torpedoes trying to sink a boat or something. Either way, i was pretty ticked off by the time we ended the dive. Well, there was some pretty large fishes, mainly saithe swimming around in the kelp forest, which my buddies tried to hunt, but to no avail. We swam around for a while before we ascended to the surface, looking at the vibrant kelp forests and marine life.

We surfaced at 62 minutes, got into the boat and got ready to have a surface interval. while the other group did their dive.

Polymastia boletiformis A type of sponge.

Dive 4: Hunden

Depth: 23 m, Time: 39 min, Temp 17 C

After a surface interval we went to a place the other group had dived the day before, a small rock called Hunden (meaning "the dog") that jutted up right outside a bigger island. From the day before we knew this was an area where you could find and pick scallops. So we did some shifting around in the dive pairs and headed off into the water as the first dive pair. We swam on the surface until we got close enough to the small island that is Hunden. before we started to descend. The visibility on this dive was pretty ok still, though there was some particles in the water here. As we swam along, one of my buddies signal me to look at something, after looking a little bit, i realize it is a small Monkfish that is hiding in the sand. So i of course went up to it and started snapping photos for a bit. After i was done, we continued along the cliff and started to head a bit downwards. As we swam along the cliff wall, i was photographing some sponges when i spot a very pretty sea anemone a bit further away, when i get closer, i see that it is a Horseman anemone, and a beautiful one at that. So i excitedly began photographing it before letting the others close to it (as it usually is with me and photographing)

It was around here one of my buddies started to signal that they were running low on gas, so we began ascending shortly afterwards. At the safety stop, the first buddy tried to shoot their SMB, but the line had somehow gotten tangled, so i got to do it instead, this time it went pretty well :)

We surfaced at 39 minutes and swam back to the boat

European monkfish (Lophius piscatorius), though a very small specimen

Dive 5: Gudrun

Depth: 34 m, Time: 31 min, Temp 17 C

Once again we decided to do a dive on Gudrun, this time however, me and my buddy knew we had much less time on the wreck due to not being able to fill nitrox. We rolled into the water and quickly descended along the rope. down to the rear of the wreck. This time both me and my buddy got photographed with the big steering wheel, even though the photo of me did end up blurrier than the rest, oh well. After getting our photos snapped, one in the other buddy pair spotted a sizeable Lumpsucker in a crevide on the wreck, so i spent some time photographing that one before we split off from the other pair for our own dive. Me and my buddy swam around the rear of the wreck for a bit, even dipping down to the propeller before it was time to swim back along the surface line as we were running low on no deco time. We ascended slowly along the line and surfaced at 31 minutes. Got back into the boat and doffed our gear, getting ready for a surface interval with lunch.

Lumpsucker (Cyclopterus lumpus) trying to hide away from the camera (and the camera man)

Dive 6: Kålesundet

Depth: 30 m, Time: 28 min, Temp 17 C

The last dive of the trip was to a "unknown" 1700s wreck where there were some really large cannons spread out in the area. But as the exact position was unknown to us, we looked through the sea maps and position data on the internet and buoyed a spot where we thought was "appropriate" for this dive. Me and my buddy were the first pair in the water, we followed the buoy line downwards, but sort of lost it at 15 m depht due to various stuff, we did find it quite soon afterwards either way when we got a bit deeper. When we found the line again, we started seeing weird shapes a bit further way, when we swam closer, we realized that "holy guacamole! these be the cannons!" So we had managed to buoy the spot almost perfectly, we thus swam along the bottom looking at the cannons of the wreck, where they lay on the bottom, some being stuck in a upright position, others laying flat on the bottom among the rocks. At one, my buddy waved at me to come and look at something, that something turned out to be a medium sized lobster hiding underneath the cannon. I of course spent some time photographing it as i usually do. When i was done we continued on, albeit in the opposite direction, and soon afterwards, my buddy signalled that they were running low on gas. As we started to ascend, i realized there was quite the current going at about 10 m depth, so we were swept along for a bit. We surfaced at 28 minutes and got back into the boat in a orderly fashion, doffed our gear and got ready to be on boat watch as the other divers went diving (this was an area where we couldn't anchor).

All in all, it was a super nice dive trip, with almost perfect conditions.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Opening to one of the 1700s cannons on the bottom, this was the first of many.

Dyk-Leif 24/7 2021 Boat diving in the Väderöarna archipelago

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, me and some buddies went up to the Väderöarna (Weather islands) archipelago, one of the westernmost archipelagos in Sweden, far out in the sea. As it is so far out, the waters are much clearer and has higher salinity, which results in higher biodiversity. Higher biodiversity is something i like, both as a marine biologist and as a underwater photographer. Either way, we arrived somewhat late, but got our gear onto the boat in a orderly fashion, got ourselves on the boat and set out to the dive sites of the day.

Red cushion starfish, a beautiful specimen at that

Dive 1: Stora Sundskär

Depth: 30 m, Time: 60 min, Temp: 17 C

We were dropped off close to the cliff wall, where we almost immediately began descending, however, as we did, i discovered that my ring system was leaking due to something getting stuck in the space between the glove ring and the suit ring, so i had to signal that we had to go up, which my first buddy did get, but the second buddy in our group did not, so i had to signal a couple of times before they got it. We ascended quickly and got that fixed before we continued the dive again. We swam along the wall, with the cliff to our left side, at about 10-20 m depth there was a current going along the wall, so there was a bit of drifting going on. We kept descending for a bit until we hit our max depth, where we spent some time swimming along the wall, looking at the vibrant marine life around us. After a while, it became time to start going upwards again, mostly due to dwindling gas supply and dive time left. So we continued following the wall upwards a bit, encountering the current once more at about 20 m where we let it carry us for a bit. It was during this time, we came across a large area almost completely covered with Black brittle stars, uncountable numbers of them.

We surfaced at 60 min, got up in the dive boat, doffed our gear and got ready for the surface interval with lunch in the nice weather on one of the small islands.

Massive amounts of Black brittle stars (Ophiocomina nigra) covering the seafloor

Dive 2: Södra Ärholmen.

Depth: 27 m, Time: 46 min, Temp: 17 C

After a nice surface interval in the sun, with some swimming because the weather was so good. We got onto the boat and headed out for the second dive of the day. We jumped into the water and immediately descended, following a ravine downwards and outwards, as had been described on the boat. After a while, me and my buddies turned left, following the cliff wall. As we were swimming, i spotted something small and purple, with a closer look, it turned out to be a Violet sea slug (Edmundsella pedata), a species I have been looking for, for quite a while, so of course I had to stay and photograph it a little bit. We continued following the wall, taking it slowly and looking through nooks and crannies for critters. Soon after, I signalled that I had 50 bars left in my doubles, at which point we started to ascend, ending the dive so to say. We surfaced at 46 minutes, got onto the boat, rinsed our gear a bit and started to make ready to go back to the harbour again. Thus ending the dive day.

This was a super nice dive day, even if it is a bit expensive, it is all worth it for sure.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Violet sea slug, a small but colourful nudibranch

Weekend 3/7-4/7 Up and down the coast

 Hi and ho!

This weekend we did two days of diving, one in a new site and one in one of our regular sites. On the first day, we went to the new spot, a spot named Lunneviken, which is close to the Norwegian border and that we have been looking at for quite a while now. The second day, we went to the dive spot at Fossen camping ground, a semi-regular spot for us by now.

Common sunstar on a rock.

3/7 2021: Lunneviken

Dive 1:

Depth: 29 m, Time 51 min, Temp: 12 C

We started with diving on the right side of Lunneviken, as this wasn't a site we knew much about beforehand. As we descended, the visibility was bad in the surface waters, but cleared up pretty good at We followed the slope downwards for a bit before hitting a small drop-off of a ledge, which we followed down  until we saw the bottom at about 23 m depth. The bottom here consisted of shells as well as soft sand or mud. It was also littered with bottles and some other trash... Well either way, we followed the wall towards the right, with not much to be seen in terms of marine life that was outside of what we are used to in the Gullmar fjord.

After we turned around, we got a bit lost and swam a bit too far to the left, surfacing at the far left side of the bay of Lunneviken, so we had to swim back to the right bay on the surface.

The Rock cook (Centrolabrus exoletus), a small yet colourful labrid fish.

Dive 2

Depth: 29 m, Time 50 min, Temp: 12 C

After a nice surface intervall in the sun, with some ice cream and cold soda, we went for the second dive. This time, we planned on diving the left side of Lunneviken, so we did a surface swim to the left side of the bay before we started descending. Once again, the visibility was terrible on the surface, but cleared up as soon as we got a bit deeper down. We followed the wall downwards and towards the left. On this side, the bottom was a bit more interesting, with more life to see, though still not much different from how it is on our regular spots, but then again, it rarely is. The area here seemed to be more with ledges, cliffs jutting out and other somewhat interesting formations, which will probably be better to explore when one has richer gas mixes, as they lie a bit deep.

Next time, we know that the left side is the side to dive on this site, might have been more interesting if we knew this site a bit better.

Rough mantled doris (Onchidoris bilamellata), one of 95 known species of nudibranches in Sweden.

4/7 2021 Fossen

Dive 1: 

Depth: 32 m, Time 61 min, Temp: 12 C

As we descended, the visibility was pretty OK between 5 and 10 m, after 10, there was a huge area full of silted sediment, probably as a result of the another dive club's OW students having a fun dive there at that same day. After swimming through the silt cloud, we got to the drop-off at about 15 m, where the waters cleared up once more. We followed the wall downwards almost straight vertically until we found the bottom at about 30 m depth. After finding the bottom, we started following the bottom with the wall to our right side, taking it easy and looking through crevices and underneath rocks for lobsters, crabs and other marine animals that likes to hide.

As we swam back, we came across a group doing a drysuit course run by one of the dive centres in Gothenburg. It was at this point that someone managed to drop on top of my buddy from this course, which was less than ideal really. We surfaced at about 61 minutes, 1 minute more than planned, good thing we were the first in our group back up, because it could have made any surface organisation a bit nervous if we didn't come up by the pre-planned time.

A beautiful Henricia starfish, this genus keep being hard to identify to species level.

Dive 2:

Depth: 27 m, Time 45 min, Temp: 12 C

After surface intervall, we headed out once more into the waters. This time, due to the second person in the second pair not feeling up for another dive, we choose to dive in a group of 3 instead. We descended in a orderly fashion and started following the wall down. This time we stopped at about 26 m depth, hovering along the wall as we swam to the right. On this dive, quite a few White sea urchins were observed sitting along the wall from 20 m and down. Not much else was out of the ordinary on this dive.

As we neared the end of our dive, my camera ran out of batteries, which was unfortunate as there was a lot of orange brown aeolids in the eelgrass meadow right before the shore.

All in all, it was a nice weekend for diving, We got to try out a new place even :)

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

An aberrant Spiny starfish, with a seventh arm growing out.

Skår 14/11 2020, Troubles and bubbles.

Hi and ho!

As the autumn is going strong, the days are getting shorter and shorter, meaning night diving is getting easier and easier to do. So, this week me and my buddies decided to shift things around a bit and go to a site we don't go to as often for some reason. The diving spot of this weekend was decided to be Skår, the site furthest out in the fjord of our dive spots. We arrived at the dive spot and met up with our other friends that was to dive with us, got our gear out and set up, divided into buddy pairs and set out for the first dive of the evening.

The North sea tube anemone, a common species on the soft bottoms.

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 44 min, Temp: 11 °C

We waded out in the water until we were about waist deep, at which point, we donned our scuba fins and started swimming out until we reached a point where we couldn't see the bottom anymore. We began descending, and that is where the first troubles started. My buddy had problems descending, but after a little while they managed to start sinking. We descended in a relaxed fashion, signalled "OK" when getting visual of the bottom and started swimming to the right, following the slope and the walls. As we were swimming, and I photographing, my main light started to act up, blinking and dimming randomly, sometimes turning itself off, a problem that persisted throughout the dives, I had to fiddle with that every now and then. When we hit turning pressure, we turned around and began going more shallow and back towards the starting point. At about 20 m, while I was photographing something, my buddy signalled that something was wrong. I looked up and saw that they were starting to float upwards, what ensued was a quick session of dragging down and stabilizing, before I signaled that we were ending the dive by going upwards following the bottom. We continued swimming upwards, while I kept a somewhat closer eye on my buddy. At about 10 m, my buddy started floating upwards again, so I grabbed them while they were looking for a rock to hold onto, as to not float up again, after we found a suitable rock, we leisurely swam upwards to our safety stop and stayed there for the 3 minutes a regular safety stop takes. We ended as soon as the safety stop was done and surfaced. At the surface we did a quick analysis of what went wrong, and came to the conclusion that my buddy had changed to another kind of undersuit, which messed up their buoyancy. We swam onto shore, got up and got ready for a nice surface intervall.

Angular crab ready for a fight

Dive 2:

Depth: 30 m, Time: 38 min, Temp: 11 °C

After a surface intervall with discussions and coffee, me and my buddy got ready for the second dive of the evening. This time, my buddy had added 2 kg of lead to their system, which made the descent much easier this time. We swam out and started descending almost immediately after making sure everything was OK (well except my light that is). After getting visual of the seafloor, we started following the slope downwards and to the right once more, this time going slightly deeper than the earlier dive. As we were swimming, the second dive pair signalled us to come and look at something. Turns out that something was a Norway lobster hiding in it's burrow in the soft bottom, however, due to to my lamp acting up, I could not photograph this one. Soon after this, we started to near the NDL, so in order to keep somewhat better margins, me and my buddy ascended a few meters before we continued to follow the walls and slopes. As we were swimming, my buddy signalled me that they saw something, I turn my head, and behold, there was an Angular crab sitting on the cliff wall right beside me, so I started photographing this specific individual. After i felt I was done, we continued until we hit turn pressure and turned around. We swam upwards following the slopes and soon hit the safety stop. While laying on the safety stop, I spent some time photographing a Baltic prawn that had come wandering into my line of sight. We ended the dive soon after and got up, turns out I had navigated rather wrong, and we were a bit further from the landing point than I thought.

All in all, it was a nice night diving evening, even if  I have realized that I need to buy a new dive light very very soon.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Baltic prawn out and about on the sand at night.

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 😆

Smögen 28/7 2020 Rain and boat diving

Hi and ho!

Northern Sea fan, a small red coral, unassuming like many things in Swedish waters

Been a while since I wrote, there was a small pause in diving due to my regular buddies being unable to get out diving, But at last we could go out this week, we went out for a boat dive this Tuesday in Smögen. The weather was to be less than ideal, with somewhat stiff winds and rain all day, but as Smögen lies in the outer coastal band, these forecasts are often not quite accurate, except for the winds that is.

Either way, we got to the dive center, signed up for the boat, kitted up and prepared for departure.

Dive 1: Stenskär

Depth: 32 m, Time: 50 min, Temp: 17 °C

Red cushion star :)

We had been told when going through the dive site, that there was Northern Sea fan corals on this site, a bit deeper down. So me and my buddy decided to go and look for them, We got ready and hit the water in a orderly fashion. Descending slowly and photographing as we went. As we neared the 30 m mark, I saw something in the corner of my eye, something that looked a bit like a thin red line, I turned my head and behold! A Northern Sea fan coral colony on the rocks, I signaled to my buddy to come and look, so we spent some time around that area, as there was a lot more corals there than we anticipated. When we neared our "no-deco" limit, as well as hit the turning gas pressure, we turned around and began swimming back to the starting point. As we went, there was a lot of marine life all around us, fish, starfish and other organisms in great abundances. 

When it became time to end the dive, I handled the Surface marker buoy and we ascended in a orderly fashion.

Dive 2: Måkholmen

Depth: 23 m, Time: 52 min, Temp: 17 °C

Common sunstar, with a very vivid crimson colour

On the second dive, the weather cleared up, and we got a nice sunny second boat tour, this time we went to a site a bit closer to the dive center.

Me and my buddy rolled into the water and descended as planned, we followed the cliff wall, keeping it to our right, as we were instructed to do. On this dive, we encountered lots of masking crabs, spiny starfish and at one point, a great scallop, which I did not photograph unfortunately. At the end of the dive, I took a quick peek underneath some kelp leaves, and found me a decently sized Common sea hare.

We ascended in a orderly fashion after the safety stop, thus ending the dive.

All in all it was a very nice dive day, even if the weather could have been much nicer in the beginning.

So until next time, keep on swimming!

Common sea hare, on a leaf of Kelp

Jordfall 30/5 2020. Hydroids and half-nights.

Hi and ahoy!

This weekend the weather was extremely nice, with the first days of summer-like temperatures of the year, as well as shining sun. So me and some buddies decided that this was perfect weather for diving. We decided to go a bit later in the day due to various stuff. This time we decided to go to a regular haunt of ours, the Jordfall marina, as it is easy to get in and out, as well as there being some benches to kit up the diving gear on there.
So after kitting up and paying the parking fee, sweating quite a bit as it was sunny and warm, we got into the water and prepared to start diving.

Nodding hydroid, very abundant on the soft mud bottom this time.

Dive 1:
Time: 58 min. Depth: 18 m, Temp: 10 °C

This White sea urchin was sitting on a a really shallow depth

Me and my buddy decided that we were too lazy to swim to the cliff and descend, instead we decided to descend as soon as the depth was great enough for descending and follow the bottom down instead. As we descended, we saw that the vis was around 3-5 m in all of the water column. When we got down to the bottom, I almost directly discovered that there was uncountable numbers of  Nodding hydroids (Corymorpha nutans) sitting in the sediment, so I began photographing, as i usually do, trying out some different settings on the camera and stuff. After a while, we continued to swim, following the bottom and the cliff walls of Jordfall. During this dive, we saw lot's of Common dragonets, however, as it was quite light in the water, they were rather skittish, as was many other organisms that I usually photograph. After around 30 minutes, it was time to turn around and swim back to the starting point again. When we neared the starting point, we observed a White sea urchin (Gracilechinus acutus) on a depth of 7 m, which is a depth you usually don't see larger sea urchins at in Sweden.
As we got up, we put away the gear and rested some on land before preparing for the second dive.





Dive 2:
Time: 46 min. Depth: 18 m, Temp: 10 °C

Orange brown aeolids doing aeolid stuff

After a small surface intervall, we decided to go into the water once more for a second dive. As it was getting rather late in the day (about 22:00) the waters were much darker, making it a semi-night dive, but that was honestly quite nice, as night dives are usually better for macro photography.
We descended in a similar fashion to the previous dive, a bit closer to the cliff this time though. The visibility was similar to the previous dive, with around 3-5 m of vis in the beginning of the dive. We kept following the cliff wall, looking in all nooks and crannies of the boulder fields and cliff crevices. After a while, it became time to get back to the starting point, as to not make it too late getting back home. It was around this time I started to see many a Common dragonet, resting on the seafloor, so I slowly crept up to some of them to try and get a good photo, especially the colorful males. So we kept swimming, with pauses every now and then as I photographed. When we reached the depth for the safety stop, around where the Eel grass grows in Jordfall marina, there was a great abundance of Orange-brown aeolids all around the area. So I spent the safety stop time photographing them.

All in all, this was a super nice dive trip, even if it got a bit late due to various things.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Common dragonet males sure are colorful

Gullmar fjord 21/5 2020 Walls, walls and walls

Hi and ho!

The Sea-loch anemone is rare outside the Gullmar fjord, super common in the Gullmar fjord

This week, me and my friends decided to go diving during the Ascension day in the Gullmar fjord, we also had a boat with us this time, borrowed from another diving club we have close ties with, so we decided to go to some sites that are only reachable by boat. The weather was also going to be super nice according to the forecast, which is why we also decided to have a bbq on the surface intervall later.
So after kitting up and some quick change of gear due to various circumstances, we set out from the Jordfall marina, towards the first diving spot for the day.

Dive 1: Gåseklåvan
Time 52 min. Depth 27 m. temp 10 °C

Can you see the Norwegian Topknot here?

The first dive of the day was at Gåseklåvan, a  vertical wall that goes all the way from the surface down to about 80 m depth. Me and my buddy was the first ones into the water, and after quickly organizing ourselves at the surface we began the descent into the water. We descended following the wall, which was full of marine life of different kinds, mostly anemones and tube worms of different kinds. After reaching a satisfactory depth, we began following the wall towards the east, photographing and filming as we went. After a while swimming at max depth, it became time to go a bit more shallow in order to save gas and not go into deco. At about 10 m, we ran into a bit of a current, which made it hard to stay still and photograph, but as the current was going in the direction we was heading, it did not matter too much.
When we had about 10 min before our time limit, we decided to ascend to the surface and end the first dive, so we simply did that. After getting up into the boat and picking up the last dive pair, we went back to the marina for some bbq and relaxing.


Dive 2: Kolvik.
Time: 54 min. Depth: 17 m. Temp: 11 °C

Nodding hydroid (Corymorpha nutans), somewhat uncommon apparently?

After a surface intervall with bbq and relaxing in the sun. It was time to go out for the second dive. We kitted up the gear and got into the boat. We drove to a site closer to our regular haunts called Kolvik. Me and my buddy got into the water (hit my butt on the side of the boat as i was rolling in) and began descending after signaling "OK" to the surface personell in the boat.
When we reached a satisfactory depth, we began following the wall in the direction of the current
As we swam, my buddy suddenly signaled for me to come take a look at something, that something was a huge Cuckoo wrasse male, which is one of the most colourful fishes in Swedish waters. Unfortunately i could not take a photo of this individual as it retreated back into it's lair when i got closer.
When it became time to get to the surface, i took the opportunity to train how to shoot the SMB, but i accidentally dropped my spool, which wan't that big of a deal as the spool is attached to the line at the end. So i kind of successfully deployed the buoy and retrieved the spool, after which we began to ascend.


All in all this was a super nice dive day and i really need to do this more often.

So until next time. Keep on Swimming!

Henricia.sp, impossible to determine species from picture.

Smögen 15/5 2020. Sea hares and wave actions.

Hi and ho!

This week me and my buddies did a bit of a spontaneous dive trip to Smögen on Friday afternoon, we had originally planned to go earlier, however the weather seemed less than ideal due to strong winds from west. Nonetheless, we went out there after some convincing later in the afternoon/evening, as the bay where we planned to dive is a bit sheltered from westerly winds. After arriving, setting up the surface organization and kitting up, it was time to get into the water.


Dive 1:

Max depth 5,4 m. Temp: 10 °C. Time: 56 min.

Gas mantle ascidian, a small, simple, and unassuming creature

We jumped into the water from a small jetty in the bay where the dive center is located in Smögen, and swam out a few meters from the jetty as to avoid entanglement in the anchoring ropes of the jetty and then started descending. The waters were relatively clear and we followed a cliff wall outwards as we had decided upon on the surface while getting ready. As the weather outside of the sheltered bay was still somewhat windy, there was a lot of waves, which could be felt underwater as well as we were rather shallow. This motion made it a bit hard to lie still and shoot photographs as one was moving around a lot as a result of the wave energy in the waters.
We swam on for a while with me and my buddy trying to photograph the best we could as we went. I have to admit to my shame that it took way more time than necessary for me to even start to see the sea hares that was around in great abundances in the algae, i guess their camouflage do work rather well as they were very good at blending in among the brown, green and red algae. I did manage take some photos, however as it was hard to stay still, a important thing when doing macro photography, most of them came out blurry. When 30 minutes had passed, me and my buddy turned around and began swimming back as we had told surface that we would be down for 1 h maximum. We swam back in a slow and relaxed fashion, trying to photograph as we went.


All in all, it was a very nice dive trip :)

So until next time, Keep on swimming!

Dotted Sea hare, not a Nudibranch, but something quite closely related.

Smögen 25/4 Boat dives in the nice spring weather

Hi and ho!

Not one of the big Frilled anemones i saw, but got a nice picture nonetheless

This weekend me and my buddies decided to go to a very popular dive shop in Smögen, which is a bit further north from our usual diving area, in order to do boat dives in the archipelago. The weather forecast told of a nice sunny day, with a little bit of wind from the north.
When we had arrived, written ourselves up for the boat, and prepared our gear, it was time to go out to the first dive spot.

Dive 1: Stora Håskär.
Depth: 29 m, Temp: 10 °C, Time: 44 min.

We descended in a orderly fashion, until we reached the bottom at about 10 m, we then followed the bottom downwards to the maximum depth. We swam around for a bit, photographing and looking around, after a while, it became time to get up again, so we began the ascension. As we ascended, we got a bit lost and had to do a "free water" ascension due to me starting to run low on gas. Well, it was good training at least. During this dive i saw some very huge frilled anemones, some Red cushion stars and a lot of Dead mans finger corals among other things.
We got back into the boat and drove back to the dive center for lunch and surface intervals

Red cushion stars (Porania pulvillus) sure looks like some kind of plushie

Dive 2: Pesa.
Depth 18 m, Temp 10 °C, Time 49 min.

After a good surface interval with lunch and ice cream, we got back into the boat and drove out to the second dive site of the day.

The small Goniodoris nodosa was hard to spot among the kelp

Me and my buddy decided to go a bit more shallow on this dive in order to search for nudibranches. Said and done, we descended into a small crevice and followed it for a while before we got out to some walls, we descended a bit more when we got out of the crevice and began swimming towards the left, following the wall. As we swam, my buddy suddenly signaled me to look at something, as i got closer i realized it was a Lumpfish, Thus i stayed at the spot for a bit trying to photograph it. The lumpfish was shy for a bit, but then it suddenly started to swim up in our faces and underneath us when we just lay there, even as we kept blowing bubbles, which will usually cause fish to flee. After a while we decided to keep swimming and look for other stuff (and the lumpfish kept following us for a bit), we swam in the direction the compass took us (and if i have to be honest, i suck att following compass directions) After a while i decided that it was time to end the dive as i wanted good margins for surfacing time. So we followed a wall up until the safety stop. At the safety stop, i decided to train a bit at shooting my Surface marker buoy, and this time it wen rather well.

All in all it was a super nice diving trip

So until next time, Keep on swimming!

This Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) was shy at first, then it got all up in our faces and wouldn't leave us alone