Red tide -- affecting dive conditions?

[bhapps24]

Hi large-diver me and scubastew went to cape-ann this morning and tried pebble. The conditions there were awful as far as vis mabey two feet. not good at all. the temp reading I got only went to 50f because we called it for that site after three minutes. we figured we still had our full tanks that we might try a different location and headed to front beach. the vis there was about 10' and we managed to get in a 33 min dive before I got cold and headed in.the temp on the surface and at depth was 45f. max depth of 24'. I think most of the vis issues were from the storms more than the red tide from what we saw. It felt good to be wet for the first time this year.

 

[michaelp68]

I dove Plum Cove last weekend.

Visibility was about 5 feet.

We also looked at Back Beach, Front Beach and Folly Cove last weekend. The conditions looked so crazy we didn't bother going in and went to Plum Cove instead.

All of that was a week ago, so I don't know what it's like up there now.

Michael

 

[macado]

So is there any specific amount of time when red tide will be gone? I understand/know that it's an algal bloom resulting from excessive growth of algae and I know specifically what it does, however long does it typically stay in one area? Will it usually effect an area for an entire season or is the time frame generally undetermined?

 

[STOGEY]

No I just did a dive at halibut pt, and I didn't see anything red.

 

[scubastew]

I was at Sandwich Town Beach (STB) this morning (monday 4/30) and I didnt notice anything particularly negative, red or not. I can tell you that visability was "blurred" but decent in the 10ft range, rarely have I gotten much better than due to the slight current pulling the water into the canal (at least I think it due to the current). Not much else to report outside of a tautog, a few shorts and a few schools of minos was pretty standard/boring. Doesnt appear to be too much life in our waters yet

I 'm not sure but I didnt think that "red-tide" is actually "red", is it? Water temps at STB was hovering around 50 degrees.

 

[macado]

It can be different colors like green or brown. I'm just curious as to how long the scallop beds would actually stay closed. The official advisory is here http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/marinefisheriesnotices/NH_CapeCod_and_BuzzBay_052705.pdf

 

[large_diver]

We ended up diving on Cape Ann this morning (5/30) -- original plan was Old Garden Beach, but there is so much seaweed on the beach and in the water we went to Back Beach instead. Vis was at times 10+ and other times about 5 feet. Water temp -- 45-46F. As others have mentioned, hard to tell whether the vis was the result of recent storms/rain or the red tide.

 

[STOGEY]

You should have gone to halibut pt. The mile long walk isn't that fun, but the diving there is pretty good.

 

[scubastew]

As i understand it the sea scallops are still open to harvest. I guess red-tide effects the part of the scallop you discard rather than the part you eat. Checkout the third paragraph of the marine fisheries advisory

 

[ScubaNorth]

We ended up diving on Cape Ann this morning (5/30) -- original plan was Old Garden Beach, but there is so much seaweed on the beach and in the water we went to Back Beach instead. Vis was at times 10+ and other times about 5 feet. Water temp -- 45-46F. As others have mentioned, hard to tell whether the vis was the result of recent storms/rain or the red tide.

This is about the 10th time I've heard OGB is a mess. I haven't been to Cape Ann yet this year as I am a pansy and it has been a wee bit cool for me and well that and a lack of Lobsters. Is this normal, does the town clean it up? I am not opposed to helping clean up a dive spot, but with the way the town is about being a tad unfriendly to non-locals. I don't of course mean outright hostile (well that one tire slashing last year) but I mean the lack of parking and quick tickets for parking in questionable zones. Any way does this usually get addressed or are we in for a messy beach all year?