CT-Rich
Contributor
Dive Report Ft Wetherill
I was down at FTW today, arriving just before dead low. I had planned on getting in two one tank dives in the Sandy Cove side of the park. I had been tracking the surf report for Narragansett the last couple of days and I saw the surf height was going low, less than two feet for most of the past week (I guess what sucks for them will be good for us). My daughter who is getting certified next week insisted that we drive up this weekend so she could bring one of her friends snorkeling, realizing that once she starts diving, she won't be taking chums snorkeling.
Water conditions looked pretty good when we arrived and there was still plenty of parking. A couple coming out of the water reported visibility was an excellent ten feet (yes, we all seemed to have compromised standards). I suited up, excited to use my recently acquired steel 120s.
My first dive I entered from the boat ramp and proceeded to follow along the base of the eastern side wall. Someone had told me that if you go out far enough on this wall at a depth of 50 fsw there is a cave or cavern extending into the island. I am not sure if this is created by a fissure or rock fall, but in any case it sounded like a moderately interesting quasi goal. Water clarity was around 5-8 foot, not quite what was advertised, but I have seldom seen FTW live up to a glowing review. Although I had a video camera, I decided that conditions didn't warranted running it the entire dive (you can smell the foreshadowing already, I am sure).
I proceeded along until I reached an overhang at about 50 fsw where I found a PVC rack mounted in the recess. My first instinct was that it was a junk deck chair wedged in the rocks. My second was it was some sort of ultra hip and exclusive geo-cache. It turned out to be part of a US Coast Guard corrosion experiment with an invitation to send in comments. I had left my pen in my other wetsuit, so after I backed out, I turned and saw a large semi-circle buried in the sand just below at about 55 fsw. As I looked at it, I saw it had a large paddle like tail. I immediately realized it must be a very large ray, at least 3-4 foot long and two foot wide. I have heard that torpedo ray had been seen in the cove, but I had also heard people say they were unlikely (in less diplomatic terms).
I drifted over the ray and settled on the bottom a couple of feet away, fumbling to start my camera. As I waited the for the camera to power up, I watched the ray be enveloped by the silt cloud created from backing out of the grotto. The ray sat obligingly stationary on the bottom, confident that I was unlikely to get the camera powered up and filming. As the silt cleared the ray sat confident in the clear, wallowing in the knowledge that I was not going to film it. I debated how stupid I should be on a solo dive with an electric ray when the ray came alive and swam towards me and past me and into the cloud of silt from which he had just emerged. I tried briefly to follow but quickly realized the futility.
The second dive was along the Western side of the same cove. I encountered a large sea robin early, a single rather mangy looking squid, probably hung over from a night of furious copulation as there were several large masses of eggs at different sites. Cutting back across the lagoon Bottoming out around 45 fsw, I followed the base of the eastern wall in again. This time I noticed that clams of some type were releasing milt from their burrows. I shot some good video of this and will post it in the coming days. Yeah, clam porn, I know.
On surfacing I saw that many scup were dead on the surface. I am curious what caused it. There were more than a few and all were scup. Not sure if this was a natural occurrence or the result of human activity. If someone has any thoughts on what is killing the fish, send me a note.
I was down at FTW today, arriving just before dead low. I had planned on getting in two one tank dives in the Sandy Cove side of the park. I had been tracking the surf report for Narragansett the last couple of days and I saw the surf height was going low, less than two feet for most of the past week (I guess what sucks for them will be good for us). My daughter who is getting certified next week insisted that we drive up this weekend so she could bring one of her friends snorkeling, realizing that once she starts diving, she won't be taking chums snorkeling.
Water conditions looked pretty good when we arrived and there was still plenty of parking. A couple coming out of the water reported visibility was an excellent ten feet (yes, we all seemed to have compromised standards). I suited up, excited to use my recently acquired steel 120s.
My first dive I entered from the boat ramp and proceeded to follow along the base of the eastern side wall. Someone had told me that if you go out far enough on this wall at a depth of 50 fsw there is a cave or cavern extending into the island. I am not sure if this is created by a fissure or rock fall, but in any case it sounded like a moderately interesting quasi goal. Water clarity was around 5-8 foot, not quite what was advertised, but I have seldom seen FTW live up to a glowing review. Although I had a video camera, I decided that conditions didn't warranted running it the entire dive (you can smell the foreshadowing already, I am sure).
I proceeded along until I reached an overhang at about 50 fsw where I found a PVC rack mounted in the recess. My first instinct was that it was a junk deck chair wedged in the rocks. My second was it was some sort of ultra hip and exclusive geo-cache. It turned out to be part of a US Coast Guard corrosion experiment with an invitation to send in comments. I had left my pen in my other wetsuit, so after I backed out, I turned and saw a large semi-circle buried in the sand just below at about 55 fsw. As I looked at it, I saw it had a large paddle like tail. I immediately realized it must be a very large ray, at least 3-4 foot long and two foot wide. I have heard that torpedo ray had been seen in the cove, but I had also heard people say they were unlikely (in less diplomatic terms).
I drifted over the ray and settled on the bottom a couple of feet away, fumbling to start my camera. As I waited the for the camera to power up, I watched the ray be enveloped by the silt cloud created from backing out of the grotto. The ray sat obligingly stationary on the bottom, confident that I was unlikely to get the camera powered up and filming. As the silt cleared the ray sat confident in the clear, wallowing in the knowledge that I was not going to film it. I debated how stupid I should be on a solo dive with an electric ray when the ray came alive and swam towards me and past me and into the cloud of silt from which he had just emerged. I tried briefly to follow but quickly realized the futility.
The second dive was along the Western side of the same cove. I encountered a large sea robin early, a single rather mangy looking squid, probably hung over from a night of furious copulation as there were several large masses of eggs at different sites. Cutting back across the lagoon Bottoming out around 45 fsw, I followed the base of the eastern wall in again. This time I noticed that clams of some type were releasing milt from their burrows. I shot some good video of this and will post it in the coming days. Yeah, clam porn, I know.
On surfacing I saw that many scup were dead on the surface. I am curious what caused it. There were more than a few and all were scup. Not sure if this was a natural occurrence or the result of human activity. If someone has any thoughts on what is killing the fish, send me a note.
