Cold water diving outside the PNW

[a22shady]

Diving in the inlet's of NJ "manasquan" you see a few different things. I wouldn't say abundance of anything except Crabs, seastars during summer. Other than those I have seen some puffer fish, some weird things tat hang on the wall can't remember what there called, We some flounders, Horshoe crabs, Seen some sea horses, and few other fish that make it through.

 

[blatter]

I guess it's a personal preference thing - there's lots of good things to like about tropical diving - have done some great trips trips to places like the Solomons, PNG and Coral Sea - but I definitely prefer colder oceans. I really like marine mammals and colourful invertebrate communities and kelp. Have done many fantastic dives around Vancouver Island (Browning Wall, Seven Tree Island, Race Rocks ...) and try to do a trip there every couple of years. I live in Tasmania which has some great temperate diving - have been in with seals and dolphins in just the last 2 weeks - and there are amazing sponge gardens and other marine life down here. Have done a lot of excellent dives across southern Australia - there is much more to see in Australian waters than just the Great Barrier Reef. Have done a fair bit of diving in UK and Ireland - wrecks and history are great - but marine life is also good to see. Have also really enjoyed dives in the Antarctic (leopard seals and icebergs!!) and Argentina. Would like to get to California, Norway and New Zealand at some point as well. Cold water diving is really enjoyable for me - the PNW is hard to beat but I think southern Australia is at the same level. We tend to have blue water rather than green - but both are good.