Släggö 23/4 2023 It might be warming up?

 Hi and ho!

This weekend, the forecast was predicting rain, so we choose to go to Släggö, as there is roof to shelter from rain and wind on this site.

Devonshire cup-coral, small but colourful

Dive 1:

Depth: 3 m, Time: 48 min, temp: 10 C

We jumped into the water and started descending almost immediately, as we were planning to hunt for nudibranchs in the shallow waters. The waters did feel quite warm for the season, but I guess that was due to the weather of the past week, being sunny and and really warm for mid-April (that has changed for now, raining as I write this 😅). Due to this warmth, there were no nudis to be found in the shallow waters in the bay of Släggö, instead there was a lot of filamentous algae growing, suggesting that indeed the nice weather was "to blame" for it. Alas it is what it is, and shallow near-shore nudis are seasonal after all (we should still be able to find nudis out when taking a boat trip)

We swam around for about 48 minutes before I got bored and signalled that we were to ascend and end the first dive. 

Sea-loch anemone, a common sight

Dive 2:

Depth 23 m, Time 53 min, Temp 6 C

After a surface interval, it was time to once again head into the waters, this time, we had decided to swim out to the cliffs on the opposite side of the bay before descending, and then follow the cliffs outwards and downwards. So that is exactly what we did. As we were trucking along the wall, we came upon a very clear halocline at 18 m depth, it was clear enough that you could see the waters mixing in the light of my dive light. We continued on, through the halocline, where it did clear out quite good as one went through it. On the rocky cliffs, there was much more to see, though mostly things that were expected, as they were sessile species. Examples include Devonshire cup coral, Sea-loch anemones and Peacock feather-duster worms. After about 20 minutes, I made the signal to turn around, as I know that it takes a while to get back too. We ended the dive at 53 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, getting ready to head home.

All in all, this dive day was a bit disappointing, but such is life sometimes. And hey, it didn't rain, despite the forecast😁

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Greater pipefish staring into the camera

Jordfall 12/11 2022, Night diving once more

Hi and ho!

This weekend we went to our regular site of the Jordfall marina for diving, it was after some debating and thinking that we choose this site as there has been a recent slew of trawlers getting dangerously close to the dive sites in the Gullmarsfjorden area. But we decided that the risk of getting trawled was somewhat negligible with how we dive on that site, as we don't go quite that far out.

Devonshire cup corals (Caryophyllia smithii)

Dive 1:

Depth: 30m, Time: 51 min, Temp: 13 C

We waded out into the bay, and quickly understood that this day was one of those days where the surface waters was a layer dark brown freshwater, likely forming a murky lid over the saltwater, and thus allowing for night diving condition, even at daylight hours. Me and my buddy swam out to the end of the pier and started our descent there. We kept close to each other, as the visibility wa really really bad. At about 5-8 m, the visibility cleared up, though it was clear that there was still freshwater mixing, as our movements still stirred up the water, making it a bit more turbid. This continued until we hit about 20 m. As predicted, it was almost pitch black underneath the layer of brown freshwater, a typical "Gullmarsfjord-lid", and that is just how we like it, as all the critters are less skittish in "night" conditions. 

We followed the bottom outwards to the deeper mud slopes of the site, looking for squids as we went, but alas, we didn't find any this dive.

After a while, we started to make our way back towards the starting point, taking it slowly (maybe a little bit too slowly, was being a bit chased by the No Deco time limit in some spots). We surfaced at 51 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, getting ready for a surface interval.

Great pipefish (Syngnathus acus)

Dive 2:

Depth: 27m, Time: 49 min, Temp 13 C

After a surface interval, we once again headed out into the water, now it had really become dark, so we were really hoping for squids this time around. Me and my buddy swam out the same way as we did the dive before before descending. When we got visual contact with the bottom, we started swimming slightly towards the right side, where we usually don't dive, in order to check for squids there maybe. After a while we once again started to swim towards the left instead, hitting the mud slopes once more. But no squids were seen by us on this dive either unfortunately, maybe it was due to the slightly mixed waters from 10 to 20 m depth that kept them away from our path.

We ended the dive at 49 minutes, got up and started make ready to head back home again.

All in all, it was a nice day for diving, even if the squids didn't show up this time.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Common hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus)

Släggö 21/5 2022 Springtime for the sea

 Hi and ho!

This week we went to Släggö for easy diving (and roof over the head, it was forecasted to rain). We also was to meet up with some friends that were doing their course things there. When we got to the site and took a look, we saw that spring had indeed come to the area, the harbour was a soup of jellyfish, and quite a lot of Lion's mane jellies too, especially in the area around where you jump in from the pier, so there was that. 

Harbour swimming crab

Dive 1:

Depth: 25 m Time: 54 min Temp: 10 C

We jumped in and swam out for a bit before descending. The visibility this day was a little bit on the bad side, but not the worst for the season, lots of particles in the water though. Continuing on, we followed the wall outwards, taking it a bit slow as one of us had new gear they had to get used to. As we swam along the wall, we kept looking for lobsters and other critters that like to hide in crevices, I did only find one, but heard later from my buddies that there had been 2 of them. At about 30 minutes, we decided to turn around as to have enough gas for a second dive later.

We swam back in a nice pace and surfaced at 54 minutes and got up, preparing for a nice surface interval with pizza.

Greater pipefish 

Dive 2:

Depth: 26 m Time: 55 min Temp: 10 C

After a surface interval, we headed towards the dive site once more, now the rain had stopped, and the weather was surprisingly sunny. One of my buddies decided to not do a second dive as their suit had leaked a bit too much the previous dive (reminds me that i need to do a leak check on mine, it is getting ridiculous). 

Me and my other buddy jumped in and swam out to about the same spot as the previous dive, before starting to descend. We followed the wall this time as well, photographing as we went. Not much of interest was really found on this dive, but i did get to experiment a little bit with angles and light positioning, so i guess there is always a silver lining. We surfaced at 55 minutes, got up and started making ready to head home once more.

All in all, it was a very nice dive day

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Devonshire cup coral

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

Jordfall 11/9 2021 Back to the old haunts once more.

 Hi and ho!

This weekend's diving adventures takes us to the Jordfall marina on the southeastern side of Gullmarfjorden. A common site that has been off limits for a bit due to road work going on. The weather this weekend was less than ideal, with rain pouring down in the beginning of the day, but that cleared up later. We arrived at the dive site, quickly donned our suits as it was still raining by then, set up our gear and got ready to head out into the water.

Common sea pen, a close up photo

Dive 1:

Depth: 27 m, Time: 43 min, Temp: 16 C

We swam out to the cliff wall and descended into the water, during the descent i observed a large amount of gelatinous strands through the water column, must be the season and changing water temperatures. Either way, we followed the wall for a bit before starting to swim out over the soft bottom slopes. I kept photographing as usual while the others followed me. The water temperature was still quite warm, but there is clearly some cooling off going about right now, as it isn't as disgustingly warm anymore. After about 25 minutes, one of the buddies signaled that it was time to turn around. So we ascended a bit and started swimming back along the wall. We surfaced at 43 minutes got up from the water and got ready for a surface interval.

A small Painted goby looking into the camera.

Dive 2

Depth: 28 m, Time: 48 min, Temp: 15 C

After a surface interval with some rain at first, but sunny weather after a while, it was once again time to head out into the waters for a second dive. This time we were only two due to the other buddy deciding that they didn't feel like another dive for the day. Me and my buddy decided to go straight out over the soft bottom slope, so we swam out along the pier before descending at the end of said pier. In the surface this time there was a milky layer of silt as a result of runoff from land as it had been raining earlier. Underneath these few centimeters of milky water, it was still about as good (or bad) as the previous dive. We followed the slope downwards, looking at the animals as we went (and me photographing them of course) As we swam around, we realized it was pretty dark in the waters, almost dark enough for squid to start showing up, so I spent some time looking for squid, but to no avail, no squid found on this dive. After a little while, I was starting to run low of NDL and started swimming upwards a little bit as to not run into decompression time. We kept this up until we decided that it was time to start heading back to the starting point once more. At the safety stop I spent some time to try and photograph the small gobies that were flitting around, did manage to get some, but not very much, as these gobies are super small and quite hard to photograph. We surfaced at 48 minutes, got up and doffed our gear, getting ready to head home after a day of successful diving.

All in all, in spite of the weather in the beginning of the day, it was a day with very nice dives.

So until next time! Keep on swimming!

Broad nosed Pipefish, one species of pipefish that can be very well hidden at times

Lysekil archipelago 11/10 2020- Unpredictable weather and happenings.

Hi and ho!

This weekend, after much discussing back and forth, me and my buddies had decided upon doing two boat dives in Lysekil. In order to do this, we had to leave at quite the early hours, as the first boat tour went out at 10 am. Said and done, we arrived in Lysekil, kitted up our gear and went to the boat. Unfortunately, one of my buddies accidentally destroyed the zipper of their drysuit while kitting up, so they had to pass on the first dive of the day. Me and my other buddy went out with the boat though. The weather forecast had told of rainy weather all day, and while there was some wetness to be had from the skies on the first boat ride, it did not last very long. So, we arrived at the first dive spot, put on our gear in the boat and got ready to head into the waters.

Devonshire cup coral doing coral things.

Dive 1:

Depth: 26 m, Time: 57 min, Temp: 14°C

Me and my buddy rolled into the water and began swimming towards the cliff wall where the dive was to happen. when we had reached a close enough distance, we signalled that we were going down and began descending. As we descended, it quickly became evident that the vis, while OK, was to be a bit grainy, with a maximum of maybe 7 m vis in any direction. We soon had visual contact with the seafloor, we spent some time on the way down photographing, before we began swimming in the direction we were supposed to go. As we swam, we came across large areas of boulders, where many fish were to be found, both, wrasse and gadiform fish of different kinds.

We also came across large swaths of shell bottom, here it was often also a bit less visibility due to silt in the water column, not sure if that was the previous dive pair, or just naturally occurring silt clouds, the likes that has been in Släggö all summer long. Either way, as we were swimming over the shell bottom, I spotted something a bit dug down in the seafloor, with a closer look i determined that it was a Great Scallop. After photographing it for a little bit, and moving a bit further away, i saw that my buddy was doing something close to the area where the scallop was. Turns out he was picking up a small seastar and placing it on top of the scallop in order to make it start fleeing. As much as i prefer to not touch the animals, i cannot deny that i find the flight of scallops quite entertaining (though you shouldn't touch the animals when you are diving really). So, after we managed to get the scallop swimming, we continued our dive further. As the time started to tick away, and my air started getting low, we began ascending to shallower depth in order to soon end the dive.

As we got up, there was coffee to be had in the boat, which is a super nice thing when you dive in Sweden, so us divers had coffee while we were driving back to harbour for lunch and surface intervall rests.

Great Pipefish on the mixed sediment bottom

Dive 2:

Depth: 28 m, Time: 58 min, Temp: 14°C

After a surface intervall with pizza and relaxing, it was time to get ready for the second dive of the day. This time we went out a bit further in the archipelago, to the outer islands, where the sites are available depending on the weather conditions. This day was one of the rare days where they could go out there without an issue, especially at this time of the year. We went with the same dive pairs as in the morning, with the exception of a new dive pair, consisting of two other friends of mine, one of which was the one that ripped their zipper in the morning. We were dropped into the water close to a set of small islands called "Trillingarna" (The Triplets) where the dive was to happen, me and my buddy descended almost immediately and began swimming with the cliff wall on our left side. On this site, there was a lot of ravines and crevices where the creatures were hanging about. Not much notable on this dive really, Saw quite the number of Henricia. sp sea stars, which, like always, is hard to differentiate to species level from photos only. 

Either way, when I started to near NDL, it was time to start heading upwards again (As my buddy dives rebreather, he does not have to worry about NDLs on this level of diving). So, we swam up in a relatively slow manner, taking our time photographing as we went. When we surfaced and got back into the boat, we once again were given a cup of after-dive coffee, which is always nice 😁

All in all, it was a super nice dive day, with perfect weather for all the sort of diving we do.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Henricia. sp sea star, variant red.

Kårevik 10/5 2020 Pipefish, goobies and jellyfish oh my

Hi and ho!

This weekend i went to a site that is not as far away as the usual sites in Gullmar fjord. The site was Kårevik on the southern end of the island of Tjörn, one hour north of Gothenburg. The original plan was to go to another site, but we decided against it as it can be a bit hard to get in and out of the water at that other place, especially after raining.

This time we were quite many as many people wanted to dive, which is good, the more the merrier. When we arrived in Kårevik, we took a look and decided to enter from the beach instead of the cliffs due to currents and wind that day.

After doing some dive planning, pairing up and kitting up, it was time to go into the water.

Greater pipefish looking a bit offended by my photographing

Dive 1:

Depth: 9 m. Time: 58 min. Temp: 11 °C

Brown crab being a bit threatening if you ask me

Me and my buddy swam out a bit until we decided it was deep enough to descend, we signaled to the dive masters on the surface, got an OK, and started descending. We descended to about 3 m before we found the bottom and started swimming slowly but surely following the depth curve and the cliff walls, photographing as we went. At one point, the other dive pair that was with us started shining on something while i was close to the bottom photographing a Greater pipefish, it turned out to be a Brown crab of a significant size walking towards me, so after i finished bothering the poor pipefish, i took the opportunity to shoot a photo or two of the crab. After a while, me and my buddy turned around as to be able to take it slow and easy on the way back to the entry point so we would be back by the time limit of 60 min we had decided upon with the dive masters at the surface. As we swam back, i noticed that there was many a moon jellyfish in the shallower waters. When it was 2 minutes left of the hour, we decided to just go up and end the dive. 

When we got up on land again, we decided to take a late lunch with some bbq on the shore as a surface interval.

  

European flounder, floundering about

Dive 2:

Depth: 10 m. Time 48 min. Temp: 11 °C

After a 2 h surface interval, we decided to get into the water once more, so, after changing scuba tanks and some re-organizing of dive pairs, as one in the second pair choose to remain on land, we went into the water for a second dive.

We followed the same procedure as the previous dive and signaled ok to the surface people before we started descending.

This time we swam a bit faster and got a bit further compared to the first dive. Due to this, i did not photograph as much, instead looking around at the different animals. However i did manage to get some pictures of a larger flatfish, as well as some other creatures. As we turned around due to the dive time starting to tick away, i noticed that there was a bit of current towards land, which suggested that the tide was coming in, not that it really is anything to worry about in Sweden, we don't get that great difference in tides. This current also brought in many a Lion's mane jellyfish closer to shore, so we ducked and weaved between the jellyfish as we swam back for a bit. When we neared the end, the sun began shining, and the resulting light was really pretty over the eelgrass beds in the shallower parts.

All in all this was a very nice dive day, even if the weather in the beginning did not make it seem like that.

So until next time, Keep on Swimming!

Eelgrass bed in the sunlight