L Street - Night Dive 10/10/14

[agilis]

I assume that a fast "finger-walk" up the carapace past the claws, hard grab, and shake them loose works here too?

Sometimes, if they are not too far back and if there is enough arm room, and if you are not claustrophobic or dealing with too much water movement, and if your gloves can handle those sharp tail spines. Direct bright light will spook them, so you have to keep them in the beam's outer edge. It's like juggling. Scare them and they go deep into the jetty.

Lobsters are cannibals. I once got a small monster that I'd missed a dozen times by staking my bug bag to a small rock with a couple of occupants in it, directly in front of the lair. 20 minutes later I kicked straight down from the surface (only about 15 feet) able to just make out the yellow bag and caught the bug by the thinnest of margins using only moonlight and guesswork. To be that young again...

I've lost quite a few that left just a claw in my hand. Those were eaten for breakfast.

 

[lowviz]

I love that game. A bit of intestinal fortitude involved too, get an errant finger in the crusher claw and priorities quickly change. For those just getting into this, lobsters have a short lag time before they go on the offense. Everything has to be done very fast as they are masters at wedging themselves into even the simplest of crevices.

Never got a good answer to this: When they disappear from the inlet for the winter, do they head into deeper water or just hibernate deep in the jetty?

 

[agilis]

I love that game. A bit of intestinal fortitude involved too, get an errant finger in the crusher claw and priorities quickly change. For those just getting into this, lobsters have a short lag time before they go on the offense. Everything has to be done very fast as they are masters at wedging themselves into even the simplest of crevices.

Never got a good answer to this: When they disappear from the inlet for the winter, do they head into deeper water or just hibernate deep in the jetty?

I've often been told that they migrated into deeper water, but there are problems with this scenario, considering that there is such a virtual sandy desert until deeper cover is reached far offshore. I really have never seen a good answer to this either. In rocky New England migration is easier to visualize.

There are so many unknowns about the sea. I guess that's part of the endless fascination. It was only a few decades ago that it was discovered that hundreds of Loggerhead sea turtles actually buried themselves in the soft bottoms near some north Florida inlets and overwintered there. It seemed impossible for air breathing reptiles, but they started finding them, initially, I think, near Cape Canaveral, and then in several other places.

It would not surprise me if some lobsters spent the winter deep in the jetties in some sort of state of reduced metabolic activity, but I really don't know. There are similar issues with Seahorses. Some are Gulf Stream strays, and others seem to be part of a permanent year round population, though all this far north are the same species, H. erectus. I've found live but completely inactive Seahorses in winter, totally inert, drifting without swimming while curled in a C shaped semi-circle, tail and head tight against the body, respiration so slow it's nearly invisible.

Lobsters obviously were here before the jetties, at least a few in shallow inshore water, based on Indian burial pits. I'm sure the larval young find the jetties and seawalls excellent places to settle out of the zooplankton, but their life cycle beyond that is hard to determine. Evolution is glacially slow, but adaptation can be amazingly fast.

 

[lowviz]

Another question: Can one get a reasonable dive at A-Street at the LOW tide change? How is the A-Street entry at low tide?

L-Street and the RR Bridge are pretty rough at low tide but the inlet should be fine(?). Tides are all wrong for me now, I like a high around 2:30 AM.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Another question: Can one get a reasonable dive at A-Street at the LOW tide change? How is the A-Street entry at low tide?
L-Street and the RR Bridge are pretty rough at low tide but the inlet should be fine(?). Tides are all wrong for me now, I like a high around 2:30 AM.

Never tried - the water is deep enough but I wonder about the water quality - High Tide is pulling in clean water or at least if the winds and waves are cooperating...
Low Tide could be dirty water diving compared to the normal 5 - 7 foot viz...

 

[lowviz]

I was planning to get in right around slack tide and enjoy in-running ocean water for the entire dive. Might be a short "screwdriver" dive, but worth the trip, who knows?

 

[agilis]

Another question: Can one get a reasonable dive at A-Street at the LOW tide change? How is the A-Street entry at low tide?

L-Street and the RR Bridge are pretty rough at low tide but the inlet should be fine(?). Tides are all wrong for me now, I like a high around 2:30 AM.

There are a number of problems with attempting to dive at the low tide change. At the RR bridge, for example, there is very little water at dead low tide, sometimes just a mud flat with very shallow water alongside what is basically a stream running through the center.

The biggest problem, in my experience, is visibility. Several hours of steady drainage from sand, mud, marsh, streets, roads, and boat basins tends to produce a murky grey/brown soup at dead low tide in most places, along with shallow water that has to be slogged through before swimmable depths are reached. Slogging through shallow muddy water does not happen in the inlets, of course, but the several extra feet of extremely slippery algae covered rock make most entry points extra difficult, and the water frequently looks nearly opaque when you get to it, and even at the best of times visibility is only a fraction of what it is at high tide.

 

[lowviz]

Thanks again, agilis. I'm going with your wisdom based on first hand experience...

OK, guys. I'm thinking that I need to harden up a bit for the winter before I attempt the inlet or even the RR Bridge.

(Typical solo diver invite)
You may find me at L-Street:

M
1 High 2:37 AM 4.8 6:59 AM Set 1:33 AM Moon: 65%
1 Low 9:20 AM 0.1 4:31 PM Rise 1:35 PM
1 High 2:58 PM 4.6
1 Low 9:36 PM -0.4

Tu
2 High 3:36 AM 4.9 7:00 AM Set 2:40 AM Moon: 76%
2 Low 10:18 AM -0.1 4:31 PM Rise 2:11 PM
2 High 3:59 PM 4.6
2 Low 10:27 PM -0.5

or

W
3 High 4:33 AM 5.1 7:01 AM Set 3:46 AM Moon: 84%
3 Low 11:12 AM -0.3 4:31 PM Rise 2:49 PM
3 High 4:57 PM 4.6
3 Low 11:17 PM -0.5

Remember that no phase of the moon beats overcast and rain. The backscatter from the clouds will light the place up better than anything else and keeps boating down to those hardy few that are fun to chat with in the dead of night.

We shall see...

 

[lowviz]

Not happening:


...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON...

• Synopsis
• STRONG HIGH PRESSURE IS EXPECTED TO BUILD FROM THE GREAT LAKES TO CANADAS MARITIME PROVINCES DURING TONIGHT AND TUESDAY. A WARM FRONT IS ANTICIPATED TO LIFT NORTH THROUGH OUR REGION ON WEDNESDAY, FOLLOWED BY A COLD FRONT FROM THE NORTHWEST WEDNESDAY NIGHT. ANOTHER STRONG AREA OF HIGH PRESSURE IS FORECAST TO PASS TO OUR NORTH ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. LOW PRESSURE IS EXPECTED TO CROSS THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS ON SATURDAY.
• Overnight N winds 20 to 25 kt with gusts up to 30 kt. Seas 4 to 6 ft. Mainly in E swell with a dominant period of 7 seconds. Rain likely late this evening and early morning...then a chance of rain late.
• Tue E winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 30 kt. Seas 4 to 6 ft. Mainly in E swell with a dominant period of 6 seconds. a chance of rain early in the morning...then rain in the late morning and afternoon.
• Tue Night E winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt... Becoming SE 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 25 kt in the late evening and early morning...then becoming S late. Seas 4 to 6 ft. Mainly in E swell with a dominant period of 7 seconds. rain likely...mainly in the evening.

I want to start taking late season pictures along the jetty and everything is all stirred up. Starts to quiet down by Thursday, but I'm rapidly losing a nighttime high tide. Looks like I will have to wait for the next cycle.

---------- Post added December 1st, 2014 at 11:17 PM ----------

Might be a chance:

Thursday has a nice full moon high tide that just catches the end of night. Probably first check to see visibility at the inlet, if no good then I'll just go back to L-Street and look for critters. Water temp reports are still surprisingly warm, low 50's.

Th:
High 5:26 AM +5.2 ft 7:02 AM Set 4:51 AM Moon 91%
Low 12:02 PM -0.5 4:30 PM Rise 3:31 PM
High 5:50 PM 4.6