Fort Wetherill, Jamestown, RI

[Benign-Chaos]

Hey there, I'm planning on. FW dive this Sunday, has anyone been recently that can give a vis report?

 

[jpiolu]

Hey there, I'm planning on. FW dive this Sunday, has anyone been recently that can give a vis report?

I visited Fort W. on Friday 8/23 (not planning to dive). Divers were reporting viz of about 5 feet away from shore. Near shore in the sandy beach cove, collectors were finding tropicals. A purple urchin was found as well. The seine was scooping up lots of solitary salps. The report was that viz in the collection area was poor due to the salps. I don't know how much of the diving area is affected by them. Though salps interfere with visibility while alive, they are fast-growing filter feeders, which means the viz may improve if they run out of food and die. Salp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2-3 weeks ago, metal "NO SWIMMING" signs were posted in several places around the diving area. I spoke to one of the DEM personnel about them. She told me that the signs do not apply to diving. They were posted to help prevent lawsuits. She said that enforcement agents won't issue tickets for swimming, but they will order swimmers out of the water. I assume stronger enforcement action could occur if a swimmer doesn't cooperate.

Joe P.

 

[Benign-Chaos]

Thanks for the update Joe! I will keep an eye out for the Salps too, now that I know what they are. I'll be sure to post a report after I return.

-Faith

 

[AfterDark]

From Sat 8-24-13 Bull point is at FW.

Pretty flat seas today but the visibility at Bull Point was only about 5 to 6 feet. A real nice 60 minute
drift dive around Bull Point though. Lot's of open water and advanced open water students were seen in the
water today, which was really nice to see. I got two opportunity's to shoot a fluke. The first was
a point blank shot at a Fluke right next to the rocks. I decided not to take the shot and just try to spear
him as I felt I would destroy my spear in the rocks if I took the shot, but he was to quick. The second one I missed a
six foot shot. Oh well, next time. We had a great picnic lunch over on the bluffs of Beavertail afterwards. The conditions
at Beavertail were completely flat and it was just beautiful. An excellent morning!

Kings Beach Sat 24
Donna and I went snorkeling Sat. at Kings beach. Vis was in excess of 20’ ! Lots of jellyfish. One diver told me at 30’-40’ below the jellyfish he thought he had 30’ vis. With winds coming from the North the ocean was like a lake. I can’t wait until I can start scuba again.

Here's a pic from my snorkeling dive. Ignore the date it's a month off!

View attachment 164306 The second picture is of Donna taken from 10-15FSW. Gives one an idea of the visibility.

For other divers: On August 22, 2013, at 2:59 a.m. a 14'8" great white shark ("genie" tagged off cape cod 2012) surfaced near the U853 off Block Island R.I.

 

[Benign-Chaos]

Just got home from Fort Wetherill. Got two dives in. There is lots of Salp as mentioned earlier. In the shallows and near the sides it's like swimming in a bowl of ramen noodles. The 9 am dive had 10ft of vis once you got below 10ft and 20 yards out beyond the Salp. Our 11 am dive had 5 ft of vis and less. More divers in the water and the tide was coming in so I wasn't surprised.

All in all, a good day though. Saw some wicked big lobsters in a trap, and a smallish one being shy in a crevice. Plenty of crab and a couple of flounder.
Any day that I can get my fins wet is a good one.

Bottom temps were around 66 degrees. I went as deep as 36 feet today.

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks for the report. Hope to make one more trip out to Ft W in Sept and hope for better vis. If you are looking for new places to dive check out my trip report on my trip to Lake George a few weeks ago. Its posted on SB under New England - Penn NY NJ. 25 ft vis and reasonable water temps above 50ft.

 

[Benign-Chaos]

Hi all,

I am contemplating a Sat. Dive at Ft. Wetherill with a group, but wanted to check in regarding the visibility and Salp situation. Not too keen on going if the Salps are still hanging around.

Thanks!

Faith

 

[AfterDark]

I tried to do a dive Wed at Green Bridge Newport. The vis was 1-2', no Salps. The ocean was VERY rough, after a 100 yds swim out the cove, I submerged into a mix master! I was tossed around by the surge and undertow. I couldn't even turn using just my fins. I had to go negative and grip the bottom just to turn around. I got out of the undertow by pulling myself along to bottom until I was in an area where the surge was less. I nav'd back into the cove and called it a day. Diving this weekend isn't going to be too great anywhere around here.

 

[Benign-Chaos]

Thanks for the update! Think I'll be spending my Saturday on land instead.
-Faith

 

[CT-Rich]

you just wanted to get the rest of those 40 mm shells... I was thinking I might head up on Monday, but I guess conditions don't look like they will be all that hot.