I started this site way back in 1996 for my new hobby. In all that time, I gladly carried the annual cost of hosting and domain name. But it's time to admit that my diving years are over, and my interest has waned.
I have kept the site up as a service to the diving community, but I don't know how much longer that makes sense.
If you would like to make a small donation to help defray that cost, it would be greatly appreciated, and help to keep the site online.
Simply click the PayPal button below or anywhere else you find it:
More: Support NJScuba.net ...
Lake Hydra, formerly Dutch Springs, has re-opened. However, it is strictly for certification classes, and all the land-side facilities are gone. Still, much better than nothing!
Fishing vessel Susan Rose was bound from her home port of Port Judith, Rhode Island to Manasquan to begin fluke fishing off New Jersey. Instead, just before 5AM * Friday November 17, 2023, she ran aground approximately 350 yards ** south of the inlet centerline. All four crew were safely gotten off. After de-fueling and de-watering, she was successfully pulled off the beach on the second attempt, at about 2AM Sunday morning, after rolling in the rough surf for almost two days. The vessel rapidly filled with water, capsized and sank, a few hundred yards ** off the beach, in approximately 50 feet of water. Again, everyone was gotten off safely.
* about 90 minutes after low tide
** news reporters said half a mile, but ... well, reporters
More: Susan Rose ...
I ran across this article that frankly shocked me until I read it. See the "Dive Planning" link below, second page.
I took a look at Dutch Springs on Google Earth, and it is pretty much all gone, as you can see above. All the buildings have been torn down. Sad. The plans to re-open are delayed by construction.
I just received my signed copy of this new book, and I must say I am very impressed. It has over 400 pages of information, charts, images, and GPS numbers. This is a must-have for any New Jersey wreck diver.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Jersey-Fishing-Reefs-Wrecks/dp/B0CGKVD3CP
More: The Silent World ...
This website has a link checker, and it just informed me that the OMS link was bad. Sure enough, the website is gone. But it looks like DUI has taken over OMS - the full line of OMS stuff is in the 'OMS' section of DUI's site. So it's probably a good thing, especially in this economic environment. DUI will be around for a long time - they make most if not all of the military's drysuits. Now they have a full line of tech gear; as I recall, I was never too impressed with their own BC designs. Just checked on Dive Rite - they're still there.
More: OMS Taken Over by DUI ...
I've been hacking up a storm, and I've made some major improvements to the mobile navigation menus, as you can see in the very meta screenshot above. In fact, it's now almost as good on a cellphone as on a big desktop computer. This website has well over a thousand pages, which calls for excellent navigation features if you're ever going to find anything. That's a real problem on a tiny cellphone screen - where do you put it?
More: Hacking ...
I did some php programming in my custom WordPress theme, and gave it a new ability. Now on each page I can embed related pages, which previously only appeared as links in the sidebar ( and still do. ) While it is possible to embed anywhere, the sensible place is at the end, after all the content. Embedding a page in the middle of another page would probably be confusing. Actually, when a page is embedded, only the beginning of it is displayed, with a link to the whole thing. Then I got an even better idea, and added the page's 'parent' to the list. I also made some formatting changes so that each embedded page is clearly a separate entity.
What is really cool about this for this website is that now every dive site's page now includes the relevant charts. This is something I always had in the back of my mind, but I never thought of an easy way to do it across hundreds of pages, until now. Once the code was finished, it took just a single change in the WordPress setup to make it happen.
More: A Nice Upgrade ...
Rare mauve stinger jellyfish found at the Jersey Shore. Its sting is 'intense,' scientists warn.
By Brianna Kudisch
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Aug. 31, 2022
Provided by Maggie McGuire
Maggie McGuire was at Sea Watch Beach in Manasquan with her family Monday when they spotted something unusual in the water - a small, umbrella-shaped, purplish-pink jellyfish speckled with dots. They scooped one up with their bucket and let it swim around in the water before eventually releasing it on the other side of the beach, away from swimmers.
"The water was literally filled with them," McGuire recalled. Her kids caught and released probably a dozen, she estimated, and other kids were doing the same. She did a quick search online, found a Facebook group - New Jersey Jellyspotters - and posted photos of the jellyfish. Two marine biologists reached out and informed her they were mauve stingers, a species rarely found on New Jersey beaches.
More: Purple Jellyfish - 2022 ...