I am asked frequently about the diving on Cape Cod, especially since spending most summers at our family’s cottage and regularly diving there. With the level of interest there is for Cape Cod (MA) and the increasingly widespread discussion surrounding the Great White, I wanted to provide details for those not familiar with Cape Cod Diving. 

First for a little history, the Cape and the nearby islands were formed an estimated 18,000 years ago, when glaciers receded from the area and left a sandy substrate. Basically, most of the Cape and the islands -- particularly, the Outer Cape and Nantucket -- are just giant sand bars. And that’s what the majority of the shore dives are here.

The popular Cape shore dives are Sandwich Town Beach (Sandwich), Garbage Beach (Woods Hole, Falmouth) and Corporation Beach (Dennis) and Harbor View Beach (Dennis), both of those which are close to our place, all of which are amazing night dives with easy entry/exits. Like much of the coast of New Hampshire, shore diving here is relatively shallow and best to dive at high tide or divers will be walking long distances to get to any significant depth. 

• Sandwich Town Beach (Sandwich)
• Corporation (Dennis)
• Harbor View Beaches(Dennis)
• Garbage Beach (Woods Hole, Falmouth)

Like much of the coast of New Hampshire, shore diving in the Cape is relatively shallow and best to dive at high tide or divers will be walking long distances to get to any significant depth. 

Sandwich Town Beach in Sandwich, MA offers an easy access for divers to get in and out of the water. This site is best to dive at high tide for less of a walk car to water. At high tide, most of the dive will be 15- 25 feet. The bottom is a mix of small rocks and sand close into shore. As divers traverse further, there will be an area of larger rocks and clay bank reefs with lobsters burrowed in the clay, moon snails, crabs, sea robins, flounder, Tautog (blackfish) and the occasional mating horseshoe crabs. It’s an excellent site for night dives with lots of comb jellies and schools of squid. 
Tide: High Tide
Winds: NW winds not ideal
Depths: 15-25Ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide

Corporation Beach in mid-Cape in Dennis, MA is much like Sandwich town beach in terms of ease of entry, exit and in my opinion, one of the best shore dives on the Cape and an awesome night dive. If you want to see squid, this is the spot to have best chance to see them and just about any kind of marine life native to Cape Cod Waters. Also as with Sandwich Town beach, it is best to go in within 1 hour before and exiting 1 hour after high tide.  You do not want to dive the site anytime the winds are from North, NW as it impacts the visibility greatly.   It’s a pretty good location too for lobsters where the large boulders and rock fields are. Depth can get beyond 20 feet but requires a very long swim. 
 
I tend to dive Corporation Beach early in the morning or at the end of the day as it’s less crowded with beachgoers and I can find parking closer to entry /exit point. During the day, when the lifeguards are present, divers will need to surface swim and descend away from the swimming area as there is no diving permitted in designated swimming areas.
Tide: High Tide
Winds: NW winds not ideal
Depths: 15-25Ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide

Harborview Beach near Sesuit Harbor, MA is another easy shore dive. Parking during the day is limited to Dennis Residents but it’s permitted after 4:00 PM.  Like Corporation Beach, it’s best to dive within hour of high tide.  As the site is 10 minutes from our house in Dennis Port, it’s nice to go there (or Corporation Beach) when it’s high tide and conditions are ideal for quick end of day dusk/night dive splash. Navigation is easy – keep the breakwater to your right exploring in the rocks for critters. Divers do need to be mindful of fisherman fishing off the breakwater.  If you swim out further beyond the breakwater, just remember there is incoming and outgoing boat traffic right there. It’s a relatively shallow dive, high tide max depth is about 20ft at the end of the breakwater, but most of the dive is around 10ft at high tide.  It’s a great site for beginners. 
Tide: High Tide
Winds: NW winds not ideal
Depths: 5-20ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide
 
Divers that explore beyond the breakwater, remember there is incoming and outgoing boat traffic close by. With that in mind, it's a great site for beginners.

Garbage Beach, (a.k.a. Woods Hole Waterfront Park) Woods Hole/Falmouth, MA is a small narrow lawn overlooking a small sandy beach in Woods Hole Harbor with several small piers to the left extending out. The entry / exit is off the small stairs leading down to the small beach (“Garbage Beach”) that is to the right of 2nd Marine Biological Labs (MBL) pier. Don’t be turned off by the name of Garbage beach. I have no idea on how it got its name but It’s actually also a nice beach for non-divers while divers are in the water.     

As for the dive, divers have two options to enter. One is a giant stride entry off the MBL Pier, the other is to walk down the small set of stairs off Garbage Beach. into the water.
Tide: High Tide
Winds: South winds are not ideal
Depths: 70ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide

What is there to see? I’ve been fortunate to find a lot of antique bottles, clay pipe stems (probably why named Garbage Beach?).  Mostly old Soda/Pop and milk bottles.  

​But mostly I find Tautog/Blackfish, Flounder, Spider, Horseshoe Crabs, Sea Robins and the occasional spiny dogfish.  This time of year, there are a lot of squid nests.    Garbage beach is by far a great dusk/night dive as you’ll be blessed with comb jellies, squid.  

Close by is the NOAA Fisheries Woods Hole Science Aquarium a 2 min walk away from the beach and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Science Center a 5 min walk away.  So good apres dive things to do on a day down there  ​

The Cape also offers some great dive spots offshore.  Unfortunately, there are no dive charter boats operating out of Cape Cod. Divers  options are to charter a fishing boat for the day or rent a boat.    A great dive site is the Target ship (James Longstreet), a liberty ship sunk in the 50s off Brewster in relatively shallow water (16 fsw at high tide). It is called the target ship as the ship was used for Target practice by military aircraft.     Lots of great sea life, fish hide in the hunk of the wreck.    Another good dive site for lobsters is Scorton Ledge near Sandwich.  It’s a popular fishing spot so you have to be careful of the boat traffic.   I’ve also had luck in the past finding Scallops nearby.   And yes, there are plenty of wrecks off the Cape.  A couple good books are “Exploring the Waters of Cape Cod Shipwrecks and dive sites by Donald L. Ferris and a shore diving guide to New England by Jerry Shine. 

Nowadays there is no talk about diving on Cape Cod without bringing up sharks. Yes, the Cape is known to have one of the highest shark populations in the country. There have been more sightings of sharks over the past few years, mostly off the eastern end of the Cape in areas such as Nauset Beach, head of meadow beach, the Chatham peninsula, and Cape Cod National Seashore.  Most shark incidents are close to shore where there are large populations of seals, the Great White’s food source. These are mostly in areas where most divers do not dive as visibility is poor from churning sand and there is also pretty much nothing to see.  (Curious to see where sharks are appearing? Use the Atlantic White Shark Sighting and Resource App. ) 

My only shark sightings in diving on Cape have been the rare sightings of Spiny DogFish. The chances of seeing a shark while SCUBA diving are low, and chances of being bitten by one are meager–one in a billion! Even though shark bites do occur, the risk of fatal bites is low. The incidents that have happened have been to swimmers/bathers swimming or surfers surfing in the areas the sharks feed- where divers do not dive. To put it most simply – we are not their food, they do not seek us out, we are not a natural prey of sharks, and they do not like the taste of us divers! It is not right to say that sharks do not attack divers, however such incidents are rare. Last documented Shark attack on a diver was in Rockport, MA in 1965!

Similar to Rhode Island, is the number of dive shops on Cape Cod offering full service of instruction, gear rental, service and more importantly air fills. Since I have been diving on the Cape, one shop (Cape Cod Dive Locker) closed and the other Cape Cod Sea Sports got out of diving altogether and focused on sales of Kayaks and cycling gear. Options for air fills on are to get tanks filled before reaching the Cape (on the way to the Cape) at Divers Market, a full service dive shop in Plymouth, MA, or once reaching the Cape, the spot to go is Adventure Diving in Eastham which offers instruction, services, rentals and air fills. Contact Bob Peck to arrange for fills. ​

I believe Aqua Center in Sandwich is also still offering fills. The proprietor is now focusing on Ice Cream business there. (Shipwreck Ice Cream). Note during busy peak periods on hot summer days, one may need to be very patient if in need of fills. 

Cape Cod is also blessed with hundreds of freshwater lakes and ponds of which many offer excellent diving opportunities. One of the more popular freshwater locations is Hathaway Pond in Barnstable which is a very popular diving spot for divers of all levels and for SCUBA Training. (and a great post ocean 2nd dive spot so won’t have to do a full on gear rinse!) It's recommended October-June.

​Always looking for new sites to try, a local NH dive site I have heard a lot about but have never done before was the “Sunken Forest” off Odiorne Point in Rye.  It’s called the Sunken Forest as it’s an ancient coastal forest, or remnants of one, with cedar and pine tree stumps peering from beneath the sand and stone and now just stubs and bits, worn down by thousands of years of waves.  The site is one of two “sunken forests” in New Hampshire waters. The other “drowned forest” is at nearby Jenness State Beach in Rye.  Due to the tectonic shift about 3,500 years ago this forest, and the land it was once was, was swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
The stumps are only a few inches tall but are several feet wide as in this image below:  

​It is difficult to find the stumps as the bottom changes, but they can be found in shallow water in very low tides. At low tide, you can walk over them. Most of the stumps lie in the right side of the cove.     

As the depth there is very shallow, this site is best dived within an hour of high tide.  The maximum depth will get will be 10-15ft of water.  You’re also going to want to dive the site when the winds/waves are calm and westerly, as the site faces east. It’s an easy dive which would be good for beginner divers. The entry/exit is not far from where suit up and it’s an easy entry, exit.     


The day we dove it was warm, sunny, and dead calm with amazing visibility which really made for a spectacular dive.  The sun’s rays shone through the water making dramatic underwater pictures.   

​Below is shot of our group of divers and one free diver/snorkeler. 

I’m an avid skier during the winter and I have been a regular season pass holder at Crotched Mountain, one of the mountain’s closest to my house. Every year in the spring, the ski resort holds Spring Fest that includes an annual Pond Skim, where competitors attempt to skim across a small man-made pond with their skis and snowboards.

​One of the annual Pond Skim award categories is Best Costume so I got creative and thought to combine two of my favorite passions, skiing and SCUBA diving.

​You can imagine the looks on the other skiers’ eyes during my practice runs down the mountain!

Folly Cove in Gloucester, Massachusetts is one of every local scuba diver’s go-to dive sites on Cape Ann. Day or night, Folly Cove rarely disappoints. There is a shore dive along the left side of the cove, a shore dive along the right side of the cove and boat dive locations that begin towards the mouth of the cove. On the left side of a shore dive, divers explore pink granite formations loaded with life and sea critters. There are frilled anemones, green urchins, longhorn sculpin, rock gunnel and colorful sea stars. Certain times of the year divers will see nudibranchs that aren’t commonly seen in Cape Ann during peak dive season. Divers will often also spend time on the bottom sand as there are moon snails, flounder, northern pipefish, northern puffers, burrowing anemones and for the lucky diver there is a torpedo ray sighting. During night dives, divers will often be entertained by groupings of bobbing squid along the grooves of the sand. 
 
But while divers explore Folly for so many reasons, most aren’t aware there is a resident Northern Red Anemone on the left side of the cove that has been in the same location for over 30 years.

The scientific name for the Northern Red is urticina crassicornis, and the name Northern Red is used for multiple species found around the world. Sometimes divers feed it as they pass by, and many divers use it for a focal point for underwater photography. In addition to being alluring for its graceful movement and vibrant color, it is used as a navigational landmark at this site. “We started heading back after the red anemone…”   

I dive along the sand on bottom with the rocks on the left and about 2/3 of the way to end of the wall, there is a small overhang. 

With ongoing angry seas in December, there wasn’t a window of calmness long enough to put the Christmas Tree out on the water at Nubble Light. For those not familiar with “the Tree dive”, it’s a tradition that began in 1979 by the late Gary Thullier, a member of the United Divers of New Hampshire Dive Club. The tradition brought together dive club members to participate with the York Parks department’s Annual lighting of the Nubble festivities.

The “Lighting of the Nubble” event was held every Saturday after Thanksgiving. Divers would show up the afternoon of the event to assemble the tree, attach the tree to the base, secure floats to the base and rig the LED lights and then everyone pitched in to “trim the tree”, which also involved adorning with glow sticks.  
​
The tradition was to raise the Christmas tree, complete with lights, out of the water just after the countdown to light up the lighthouse. 

It always takes a small village to organize and execute the tree dive event. The tree needs to be assembled and trimmed before being hauled down to the water. We then rely on divers to tow the tree out over to the mooring and submerge it in anticipation of the countdown. Divers need to reenter the water once again before the lighting to pop the glow sticks underwater and ready the tree for the raising as the lighthouse was lit up.  

With the passing of Gary Thullier, who was integral in coordinating the tree dive, others were only too glad to pitch in to help. Members from the former Finatics Dive Club, and NH dive shops Aquatic Escapes of Londonderry and Aquatic Specialties in Merrimack all helped to keep the tradition going. The original base that Gary had made was crafted of steel rebar.  As you can imagine, over time it would rust and corrode due to the salt water, and this was amplified by being stored outside. The base eventually needed to be replaced, and Erika Parsons stepped up and used her pipefitter skills to build a new stainless-steel base. The original LED lighting Gary had fashioned also needed to be upgraded. David Hubelbank, an RPI Electrical Engineer, upgraded the LED Lights with a proper LED lighting system which was a more reliable system than in past years. We also switched to a much bigger winch that significantly simplified the process of submerging the tree. David Coyle of Aquatic Specialties donated the current tree. (We’re on our 3rd “neutrally buoyant” tree).

I first became involved in the tree dive in 2010 and have looked forward to participating every year with my wife and kids. As we raised the tree from the water, it was a rush to hear the crowds cheering and see the flashing lights.  I would also enjoyed towing the tree around for a “victory lap” before towing it back to shore for the photo op. I remember divers being greeted to the warmest thank you’s (and sometimes even hugs from the younger kids)  ​

A few of the years, there were challenges getting divers to help as many longtime supporters had family commitments. One especially quiet year, it was just myself and Ben Tong as divers and Matt Rosenburg, the Nubble Lighthouse Keeper, to help topside on his dinghy. We managed to successfully submerge and raise the tree with bystanders pitching in and help bring the tree down to the water and back up afterwards. The Town and the public had always looked forward to the tree being there, so we just made it work. That was until the event had become a victim of its own success.​

The holiday festivities would draw over 1,000 people into quite a small area. The Town of York and York Parks Department made the decision to do away with the countdown over safety concerns, such as access for first responders. While there is no longer a large gathering with an annual countdown, divers still make an effort to keep the tradition of the Nubble tree everlasting. Last winter, we were blessed with calm seas, so Dave Coyle from Aquatic Specialties and a few divers pitched in to put the tree out for the first time since the Pandemic.  A local diver, Bobby Joe, stepped up to take some spectacular drone footage.

While Mother Nature didn’t allow us to bring out the this year, I’m looking forward to putting the tree out on the water for Christmas in July 2023. We hope that you will join in the event. 

 Nubble Lighthouse in Cape Neddick, Maine, holds a special place in my heart as Nubble was the first dive site I dove when I first moved to New England. Whenever I’m looking to get out for a dive, I usually check conditions there first given it’s one of my favorites.  After Pierce Island in Portsmouth, it’s the 2nd site I’ve dove the most in New England with close to 200 dives. Nubble never disappoints. I’ve personally have had some of my all-time best encounters with marine life diving off Nubble. I encountered my first sightings of Torpedo Rays, Seals, Sturgeon and last December, came across a Blue Fin Tuna right off the northern point of the island.  On multiple occasions I came across the largest schools of bait fish. Some bait balls of Pollack, Menhaden (“Pogies”) were so big right above me, the water would darken.  This past October, two of my regular dive buddies encountered a humpback whale. Night dives at Nubble are also special with some of the largest schools of squid and occasional bioluminescence.  Nothing like surfacing to a beautiful starry sky lit by a full moon.

In the Spring of 2008, as my buddies and I were suiting up, the Lighthouse Keeper at that time asked if we would be willing to do him a favor and secure his mooring ball to the mooring in the cove. We were only too glad to help. To thank us, the Lighthouse Keeper offered to row us out on his dinghy to the island for a tour of the lighthouse.  It was special as I got to experience the inside of the house. It was still the same as when Town of York became Guardian of Nubble in 1997. There were wood paneled walls, 70’s shag carpet, GSA issued office desks and bookshelves full of USCG manuals. The real highlight though was getting to go up to the lighthouse for the panoramic view.    

Several years later, I introduced myself to Matt Rosenburg, the new Lighthouse Keeper who replaced the previous one that had retired. I offered to help Matt with the mooring ball which he really appreciated. Putting the mooring ball out in the spring and removing it in the fall has since become an annual ritual and Matt and I have since formed a special bond.  A couple years ago, while talking to Matt after one of my dives Matt shared he was diver and that he hadn’t dove since he completed his open water dives at Nubble when he was a student at UNH 25 years ago. I’ll never forget the look of excitement in Matt’s eyes when I offered to take him out for a refresher, kit him up with set of gear. We went out August of 2021 and for Matt, the dives we did that day were the highlight of his summer. Matt had an amazing experience and said diving was better than he remembered. We’ve since have done several dives together and I even had the opportunity dive with Matt on the other side of the island off his boat this past July.    

So the next time you’re out diving at Nubble and see Matt working, please say hi!    

Below is link to Matt’s Instagram account. His pictures and artwork are amazing!
https://www.instagram.com/nubblelightkeeper/?hl=en​
Nubble Lighthouse decked out for Christmas: Meet the keeper who keeps it bright

​By Luis Figueroa – iDive New England Team Member
 
An iDive New England Diver bud had a great idea to post stocking stuffer, gift ideas you can give to your non-diving friends, spouses, or significant others struggling with what to get you.  Admit it. We’re very particular when it comes to our gear which makes it difficult for non-divers to know what to get us as gifts this holiday season.  I am blessed as my non-diver mother-in-law has been trained well that knows to give me air-cards from my local dive shop each year.   

Certainly, gift cards or gift certificates make great stocking stuffers for your diver loved ones but the following are other ideas to add to your list:

• Iconic red beanie made famous by Steve Zissou, Jacques Cousteau.   
• Wetsuit Shampoo
• Slosh low foam cleanser for BCD
• Mask Defog (can never have enough)
• Mask Scrub for new masks
• Dry-suit Zipper Wax
• Dive flag Stickers
• Tank strobes for night dives
• O-ring kits.  We’ve all been there!
• Suit juice or dry-suit/wet-suit talcum powder
• Silicon grease or O2 Lube
• SCUBA multi-tool for save a dive kit
• Salt Away Solution

What are your stocking stuffer suggestions for your significant other? Leave ideas in the leave a comment below.

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By Luis Figueroa – iDive New England Team Member
 
Pete Perron, one of my old regular dive buds that I regularly dove with in Portsmouth affectionally referred me to as a “river rat” for the number of dives would do in the Piscataqua River. Having logged 280+ dives in the Piscataqua, I guess that qualifies me as one.

Diving in the Piscataqua is not for the faint of heart.  The poem from the Poet Laurette Robert Dunn sums it best.  “From here you can see the tide turn like a door on its hinges.  We’re just going out. Do you want anything from the ocean?”  The Piscataqua river is of the fastest flowing tidal waterways in US (NOAA list of 50 fastest in N. Am). The ice-free deep-water channel has been used for shipping since the 1600s. With Tidal current around 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) the Piscataqua allows ship to pass during periods of slack tides which is why so many ships pass by while we're under the water.  
 
I was turned onto diving the Piscataqua River in 2008 through Jay Gingrich, former owner of the Portsmouth Scuba (and 1st “river rat”).  I was intrigued sites with names like Toilet Hill and the vast collection of artifacts he had brought up during his years of diving the river.  To date, most of my dives in the river have been off the Pierce Island wall (no, not Peirce but Pierce), under the  Memorial, Sarah Long Bridge and UNH Pier in Harts Cove and in the back channel off Goat Island. 
 
Pierce Island is such a spectacular site given the unique wall and underwater topography but also for the variety of life under the water. I’ve been blessed by huge bait balls of fish, Pogies/Atlantic menhaden and Pollak, striped bass, Sea raven, short and long horn Sculpin and of course nudibranchs. In the winter months through early spring, the site is destination for many macro photographers to capture macro shots of nudibranchs that feed off the abundant fields of hydroids and anemones the are lined along the rock walls.The site was featured on an episode of New Hampshire Chronicle.  To view the episode, go to Diving for Nudibranchs in the Piscataqua River    Pierce Island happens to be close to where I live, so much more convenient to get to but it is also a dive site I can dive when the conditions in the open ocean are blown out to rough seas. During the winter months, before the snow melt runs off, you can experience spectacular visibility. The downside of diving the river is the windows to dive are limited to during slack tide. I find the diving is better at high tide slack over low though have had good dives during low slack tide.
 
The river also offers other interesting site such as the Sarah Long Bridge, which is a great site to find artifacts, antique bottles. With each tide cycle, new artifacts are unearthed so there are still cool things to find. Most of what have found are antique bottles, apothecary bottles, even stoneware jugs.  The river was a means for goods to be transported on gundalows (shallow drafted wooden cargo barges) up and down the river to the Great Bay and to the Ocean. 

Another favorite site is diving in Harts Cove near Fort Constitution. It’s a great site for finding antique clay pipes and stems, but also a great site for critters directly under the UNH Pier. Like Pierce Island, the site is popular with macro photographers to capture images of Nudibranchs and the anemones that are along the pilings.  In the spring and summer months, you’ll find the largest sea stars that feed off the muscles on the bottom. I need to mention that you need to stay clear of the inside harbor, which is a working harbor where the USCG, Marine Patrol and UNH vessels run operations from.

As I said earlier, diving the Piscataqua River isn’t for the faint of heart. The currents are treacherous which is why you should only dive with a professional dive guide or someone familiar with the tide cycles, entry and exits, that has experience diving the sites there. 

Just wanted to share my past experiences my 14 years diving as a “river rat”.