It been a busy weekend, Senior Prom on Friday.



Fishing yesterday.



Diving today. We did the right side of Folly Cove (East side), there's wall on the other side and that's the normal dive side. We wanted to try something different, we've heard there are more fish on the right side. They were right (3 or 4 Flounder, 2 Sea Robins, 3 Sea Ravens, 1 mystery fish), the structure is as interesting just different. The water was in the low 50's, 51 minutes in this balmy water, max depth 30'. Great dive with lots of interesting critters to watch. The tiny shrimp I saw at the beginning of the year are now 1" long, and still just about invisible. Here's the shots.

Flounder in Flight



One of the Sea Robins



The other one.

A very uppitiy lobster, I caught in the open.



A mystery fish that may have been near death.



Sea Raven



Sea Raven 2

very kewl, Cecil. You'll have to keep posting to support our habit until Jake gets the reef cam up. Thanks

Cecil,
nice shots-- the visibility looked excellent-- Was the lobster a keeper?

Visibility was around 15', and yes he was a keeper, maybe 2 lbs. No collecting for me, you need a license and you need to be a Mass. resident, 0-2.

Cecil, I can't be 100% sure, but your "sea robins" look more like ocean pout to me. They definitely aren't shaped like sea robins -- too much tail.

I just found an outstanding online picture of a sea robin:

http://www.stripermoon.com/baitfish/s59.htm

They tend to almost stand on those bottom fins...

Here's a photo of an ocean pout. Looks quite similar to what you have above:

http://www.gotosnapshot.com/Ocean_Pout/catalogdata/12.html

I'm psyched to hear that Folly is over 50 degrees already! Dan and I went down to Beavertail state park in RI today, and saw 52-54 degrees down there. I figured Cape Ann would be quite a bit colder than that...

Faith

Thank you Faith. Good links, it's been driving me crazy, I do much much better on identifing tropical fish then I do on the ones in my backyard. My only defense is that seeing them is much rarer. Ocean Pout it is. It did like to rest on the bottom, a skidish fish, the second I only got a picture of by swimming next to him for a ways before he settled down for his close up.

The temperature was from my memory it may have dropped into the 40's at depth. There is a slight thermocline at Folly, hard to believe in tidal waters. The solution is to stay shallow which is where most of the action is anyway.

good pics cecil...glad the water is warming up (least no snow on the banks!)...prom...your handsome son's date is beautful! Is he going to college in FLA???

Somehow there's ALWAYS a thermocline at Folly. And Folly's the only place we've ever found vertical thermoclines. We did one dive one day where we'd swim from a cold stripe to a warm stripe to a cold stripe to a colder stripe to an even colder stripe. And we never changed depth...

Do you have a copy of Andy Martinez's book on North Atlantic marine life? It's great...

Faith

Cynde, yes he's off to Emory Riddle in Daytona, going to be a pilot. I told him to tell the instrutor, he only wants to learn to fly straight and level, no landings and takeoffs. See if they have a sense of humor.

Faith, no I don't have that book, I'll have to ask for it as a present.

Cecil, you might want to pick up a copy of Andy Martinez' book. It's listed and available in the bookstore section of our Dive New England website.

Very nice, Cecil. Looks like you are having fun with that camera. Oh, and tell Jay that "he looks beautiful too." You wouldn't want to have two pouters on that camera! Cynde, good to see you!

hazel, are we going to get to see any photos of red creek on their trip? they all are so fun to see. such enthusiasm.

Hi, Sherry! Maybe - I am swamped today, but perhaps we can post a few pics tomorrow. Thanks for asking!

we all will be waiting, we enjoy red creek alot.

Hazel good to see you too! I finally had a break at home and got to peek in yesterday morning...Cecil...sounds like good advise, but you know that teenagers never listen to their parents because they think we don't know nothin'!