Is Diving the Pamlico Sound possible/advisable/realistic?

[Professor Nemo]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone on ScubaBoard ever dove in the Pamlico Sound, North Carolina and if so what are/were the conditions like and where were you? The reason I am asking is because I have access to a small creek that empties out into the sound and I thought that this might be a good way for me to hone my diving skills in an environment more closely aligned with the conditions I would encounter in my ideal location (the open ocean/wreck dives), allowing me to check my weight distribution, skills, etc. However, if visibility is always next to nothing or the area is just genuinely poor for diving I will keep practicing in a pool. Also, does anyone know of any shipwrecks actually in the Sound that might be visited/logged?

 

[DoubleAA]

I have a boat in a creek off the Pamlico and have never done any diving in it. Visibility in most of it would be next to zero unless up in some of the creeks that may be a bit clearer. I would expect visibility to be next to nothing in most of the sound. Theres so much runoff and silt.

Edit to add: Fantasy Lake Scuba Park outside Raleigh is around an hour from Greenville. Morehead City and Wilmington aren't far away either. If you want some cheap shallower diving out of Wilmington the Lib Ship (Alexander Ramsey) is a good cheap dive. Will run you about $50 out of Wilmington.

 

[DiverDownD3]

I wouldn't advise diving in the Pamlico Sound. Visibility is going to be 5' on a great day and honestly I'm not sure what you are going to see. My sister lives on a piece of property in Bettie (just east of Beaufort) that has a quarry on it. They sunk a few small boats in it and I think it has a max depth of 30'. A few of my friends have dove it and if I'm not mistaken Discovery (Beaufort) Diver Dawgs (New Bern) use it to conduct courses in it. Everyone I've talked to said it's a pretty good place to practice some skills, especially navigation. I think the lady that owns the land charges $15-20 to use it. My sister and her boyfriend fish in it from time to time, so there is some life in there. Should be noted, I've also heard there's a gator in there but they've never seen it. I could get you the owner's contact info from my sister if you'd like.

If you absolutely want to dive salt water, you can try Radio Island, though when I dove there in October for the Discovery Scavenger Hunt it wasn't that great. Not really much to see and the current can absolutely rip through there.

Like AA said, you can either dive the Liberty ship in Wilmington for about $50 or you can dive the Indra/JJ Tugs out of Morehead City for $70.

 

[TMHeimer]

This seems to be the case with quite a few "enclosed" bays/sounds with rivers entering--like Chesapeake, Delaware, Laguna Madre in TX/Mexico, Barnegat in NJ, some on the FL panhandle. In such places you probably can find some area of the water body where you can at least practise skills. You can also pay for going to a pool.

 

[LariatAdvance]

I'd forego the sound. You're gonna get 3 feet of vis and a lot of mud at best.
The rock jetty at Radio Island is better. Dive it at slack high tide or the currents are pretty strong. I've dived it during outging tide and it's a lot of work to keep from being dragged out. On the other hand if you dive it at incoming, you can walk all the way down to the fence and go in and let the tide bring you back up to the parking lot. Saves you a long walk back.
Vis varies from 5' to 15' depending.
You can park for free at the parking lot and walk down the beach to the fence, it's about a half a mile walk so a beach cart is nice to have.