New to the Northeast
- Thread starter Vacitus
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
keelhaul123
Contributor
Welcome to New England!
I think you'll find that you've landed in one of the richest diving enviroments that the US has to offer. What kind of diving do you like? Wrecks...plenty of them, the REAL kind, not the precleaned, stripped and sunk artificial reefs that so many areas depend on. You like lobster? Then get your Mass license and go bug hunting. Shore diving, boat charters, saltwater, fresh....we have it all. Cape Ann north of Boston is possibly the most popular area, and I think the best for diving here, but by no means the only place. While I haven't dove the Pacific Northwest, and I hear its beautiful, I am sure you won't be dissapointed here!
I think you'll find that you've landed in one of the richest diving enviroments that the US has to offer. What kind of diving do you like? Wrecks...plenty of them, the REAL kind, not the precleaned, stripped and sunk artificial reefs that so many areas depend on. You like lobster? Then get your Mass license and go bug hunting. Shore diving, boat charters, saltwater, fresh....we have it all. Cape Ann north of Boston is possibly the most popular area, and I think the best for diving here, but by no means the only place. While I haven't dove the Pacific Northwest, and I hear its beautiful, I am sure you won't be dissapointed here!
Being from the northwest you'll probably adapt to diving here pretty quickly. The water temps north of Cape Cod are very similar to what you are used to in the Northwest during the summer, mid 40s to low 50s depending on depth and location. Winter water temps are usually in the mid 30s.
South of Cape Cod in RI it is dramatically warmer. Typical water temps are in the mid to upper 60s during the summer (except on deep dives where you may hit 50s). Winter temps are mid 30s similar to the north side of the Cape. The warmer waters down in RI actually support juvenile tropical species towards the end of summer.
Some places will hit 30 ft visibility on a good day. On a bad day it can be near 0. Most of the time the visibility is somewhere in the middle.
RI, MA and ME all have some nice rocky areas of coastline (Jamestown, RI, Gloucester, MA and Rockport, MA for example) that make for some great shore diving. In addition there are plenty of sites were you can get quite a bit of depth very quickly with minimal surface swims.
If you get out on a boat, New England has tons of shipwrecks. There are famous ones like the U-853 in RI or Chester Poling in MA, but there are also endless amounts of lesser known wrecks to explore if you feel like it.
South of Cape Cod in RI it is dramatically warmer. Typical water temps are in the mid to upper 60s during the summer (except on deep dives where you may hit 50s). Winter temps are mid 30s similar to the north side of the Cape. The warmer waters down in RI actually support juvenile tropical species towards the end of summer.
Some places will hit 30 ft visibility on a good day. On a bad day it can be near 0. Most of the time the visibility is somewhere in the middle.
RI, MA and ME all have some nice rocky areas of coastline (Jamestown, RI, Gloucester, MA and Rockport, MA for example) that make for some great shore diving. In addition there are plenty of sites were you can get quite a bit of depth very quickly with minimal surface swims.
If you get out on a boat, New England has tons of shipwrecks. There are famous ones like the U-853 in RI or Chester Poling in MA, but there are also endless amounts of lesser known wrecks to explore if you feel like it.
mtsidford
Guest
Shorediving NewEngland is abundant, rich w/ life that can be quite different. From July to October you can find juvinal tropical fish from shore in R.I.. The Cape Ann...Gloucester and Rockport area have terrific sand entry or granite entry dives that can get as deep as 80 ft. The granite bottom carved out from eons of pounding waves is beautiful in places, it gives you small cave oportunities, swim throughs, dramatic ledges, and nooks and cranies for lobsters and other critters of the deep.
We rarely have currents that are trouble. The Cape Ann area has North, South, and East facing dive spots so whichever way the wind is blowing on your weekend you can still dive.
Fish life you will frequently see... flounder, tautog, sea ravens, curious Large stripe bass, dog fish, skates, sculpin, anenomes "Northern Red anenome" occasional ocean pout, wolffish, and atlantic torpedo ray "electric ray". Did I mention Lobster. They are everywhere and can grow as large as 20lbs, athough you can take nothing larger than 5lbs home to dinner.
Another diving opportunity not yet mentioned is the Isle of Shoals area off the coast of N.H. It is home to a large number of sea lions/seals. The Isle of shoals is a boat dive, another different boat dive offered out here is scallop diving.
Hope to see you out there. Sid
We rarely have currents that are trouble. The Cape Ann area has North, South, and East facing dive spots so whichever way the wind is blowing on your weekend you can still dive.
Fish life you will frequently see... flounder, tautog, sea ravens, curious Large stripe bass, dog fish, skates, sculpin, anenomes "Northern Red anenome" occasional ocean pout, wolffish, and atlantic torpedo ray "electric ray". Did I mention Lobster. They are everywhere and can grow as large as 20lbs, athough you can take nothing larger than 5lbs home to dinner.
Another diving opportunity not yet mentioned is the Isle of Shoals area off the coast of N.H. It is home to a large number of sea lions/seals. The Isle of shoals is a boat dive, another different boat dive offered out here is scallop diving.
Hope to see you out there. Sid
Similar threads
