Slightly disturbing dive at Nubble last night.

[Aqua-Andy]

We had a great 70 min dive and the viz was probably 30'. The disturbing part is I saw at least 6 dead lobsters and one of the northern red anemone was looking pretty rough, it had many shriveled tentacles. Am I the first to notice this, any ideas of the cause?

 

[Mr.X]

We had a great 70 min dive and the viz was probably 30'. The disturbing part is I saw at least 6 dead lobsters and one of the northern red anemone was looking pretty rough, it had many shriveled tentacles. Am I the first to notice this, any ideas of the cause?

Hmmm? Did you pick up the remains to make sure it wasn't results of ecdysis? If they were dead - not so good. Pesticides run-off can wreak havoc on invertebrates.

 

[IanBrit]

Plus the Torpedo Ray was looking pretty beaten up (though with it's size, it had probably seen a lot of action). At least one of the lobsters looked to be clawless. Based on my dive logs from the same time of year and time of day, 2 and 1 years ago, the temp was 9 degrees cooler at the same depth,

 

[augk]

Hey MrX any possibility of chemical run off from a fire in the nearby Portsmouth harbor?

 

[Mr.X]

Hey MrX any possibility of chemical run off from a fire in the nearby Portsmouth harbor?

Very interesting. I would assume toxic runoff? I've never dived at Nubble - so I am unfamiliar with the area, but have seen some crustacean die-off from run-off in the Pacific Northwest. Especially with Dungeness crabs. I was also diving Valdez Alaska recently and noted very little large crustacean life. I would imagine PEP persistent organic pollutants as a factor there?

Cheers,

X

 

[spectrum]

Dead lobsters are not common. Those with lost claws are no surprise, The season is way ahead from reports and they molted and went soft shell early. There may be some things off balance that left theme specially vulnerable with the odd timing.

Nubble is a good run from Portsmouth.

 

[Cecil]

I dove the Nubble a week ago and everything looked fine to me, in fact the Northern Red looks like it's almost doubled in size. There's some shot at the end of the below link.

Awesome Saturday