UAE West Coast Temperatures

[Searcaigh]

Well I pitched up at La Mer South for a night dive yesterday evening and was surprised to find a boom across the area that we dive. The is boom is connected to a canvas wall held down with chains.

Not sure what's going on but I hope that we can still dive here and that they are not going to fill in the lagoon area as they have done further south at Sunset Mall beach!

Dozens of cuttlefish scooting around everywhere, hard to miss. Not sure if a full moon had anything to do with it.

We did find one seahorse

As well as four Platycephalus indica (Indian Flathead), two adults around 60cm and two juveniles, one of which was half buried in the sand.

Surfaced earlier than planned as my buddy and I were making getting hungry signs to each other!

 

[BoltSnap]

Surfaced earlier than planned as my buddy and I were making getting hungry signs to each other!

Where and what did you have for lunch?

 

[Searcaigh]

Where and what did you have for lunch?

Lunch was like four hours before the dive. The dive started around 19:35 and finished at 20:55.

 

[hedonist222]

Sounds intimate.
I imagine there'll be a lot of juvenile sea critters soon.

 

[Searcaigh]

With the current fuel prices, diving the west coast makes sense these days especially after the floods at the east coast creating poorer visibility than normal as well as possible disruption in getting there due to roads being damaged etc.

Had quite a few shore dives over the past week at various locations.

Best find has been this yellow seahorse

DXB_2560MCsig.jpg

Seahorse

scubaboard.com

One of my friends has a week off, so we're doing nice long early morning dives in places we've never dived before.

Today we did a dive under a bridge next to the Four Seasons Hotel and found lots of cuttlefish lurking in the mud.

GTS31266MCsig.jpg

Cuttlefish

scubaboard.com

 

[Fires]

I love the seahorse pics! Nothing like a bit of searching to find something like that.

I have been wanting to find out about shore diving in Dubai and what the 'rules/legalities' are around just getting in the water and diving. I love diving Fujairah, but I also don't always have the whole day to commit to going out there.

Is there anything specific to do or can you just get in and dive? How far out do you go, as I take it you tug a flag/buoy with you?

Would love to tag along some time if possible please

 

[Searcaigh]

I love the seahorse pics! Nothing like a bit of searching to find something like that.

I found one today under the bridge, photo to follow.

I'm not sure what the rules are regarding shore diving. As long as there is no giant sign saying "No Scuba Diving" I just go in, as it's not quite like Saudi when we had to dodge the Coast Guard if you didn't have a Saudi Dive Licence back in the 90s.

With the increase in fuel prices and Dive Op prices on the east coast, I've been doing more shore dives here, but they're not for everyone as it's mainly macro stuff.

Who do you normally dive with on the east coast?

 

[Fires]

I found one today under the bridge, photo to follow.

I'm not sure what the rules are regarding shore diving. As long as there is no giant sign saying "No Scuba Diving" I just go in, as it's not quite like Saudi when we had to dodge the Coast Guard if you didn't have a Saudi Dive Licence back in the 90s.

With the increase in fuel prices and Dive Op prices on the east coast, I've been doing more shore dives here, but they're not for everyone as it's mainly macro stuff.

Who do you normally dive with on the east coast?

Ah nice! looking forward to the pics!

Okay great, good to know thanks. I figured one probably doesn't venture out far enough to attract attention, but I was still unsure.

100%. Put it this way. In South Africa we were out every weekend diving in an old open cast chrome mine when we couldn't get to the coast (most of the time as we were inland) and there wasn't much there. So to even have the chance of seeing some sea horses or nudi's is already a win. I am happy to just be diving rather than not. In other words, more than happy to just muck around. Also always a good time to go through drills etc. at the end of the dive and such.

Also recently (today ) bought a camera, so will be good to get some practice in.

East coast I have been to freestyle twice. Still need to try some others as per your and others' suggestions.

 

[Searcaigh]

Today the visibility above sea level was really cr@p, perhaps 500m and very very dusty.

My regular buddy joined me this morning as she had to work the weekend and didn't want to venture to the east coast, which was just as well, so we headed to the bridge, her first dive there.

It was low tide and slack when we entered, and 110 mins later on exit there was a reasonable current running as the tide was coming (new moon a couple of nights ago). Water temps still nice and comfy 33C with air temps lower than yesterday at 35C.

Lots of cuttlefish around, which is now expected at this site, but my best find was a seahorse



Heaps of flatworms today too, Pseudoceros sp.



And a couple of Goniobranchus obsoletus



Will probably return mid-week with the Nikon to get better shots of the seahorse, as the autofocus on the TG6 didn't appear to work so well today with the seahorse.

 

[Searcaigh]

Back to the bridge again this morning with low tide around 11:00 so it was going out when I went under at 09:00.

Had the Nikon with me today and it took about 30 mins to find the seahorse as it had moved from the place I found it on Sunday.



Hippocampus Kuda I believe.