Dutch Springs - The End of an Era

Don't know how I missed this, but back in August, Stu retired and sold Dutch Springs to a developer who plans to put two warehouses on the property:

click to enlarge

As you can see, one warehouse fills the small wooded area (lower-left) that was basically unused, while the other obliterates the entire area between the quarry and the road. This leaves no room for parking or facilities. The property is approximately 95 acres, but more than half of that is water.

Sad, but Stu built the place and ran it for 40 years, and he has a right to retire. As we all know, anything having to do with diving brings insurance into the mix, and thus far no other solution has been found.

The quarry will be fenced-off, and Dutch Springs will enter the history books.

Zoom-out the map above - the entire area has become blighted with warehouses.

What I don't understand is why the cement plant doesn't get re-developed. My guess is that site is so contaminated that no one can touch it.

I think thousands of divers owe Stu and Jane a big Thank you! for all they've done for the diving community. Nothing lasts forever.

For those who want one last dive at Dutch, you might be able to get one in on December 31 for New Year's Eve.


Harbor Seal

Phoca vitulina

by Larry Sarner

Wild seals conjure up images of northern or even Arctic climates. But few people know that more than a hundred harbor seals call New Jersey home during the winter months, coming ashore into isolated estuaries and even upstream into a few rivers.

New Jersey is near the southern limits of the range for harbor seals on the East Coast. However, these seals are frequent visitors offshore in winter and even have been reported as far south as the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and off the coast of North Carolina. The winter seal-sighting season runs from December through March. Seals generally leave the New Jersey coast by the second week in April, probably responding to rising air and water temperatures and the increase in human activity.