Long Island West Dive Sites (3/11)
- Type:
- shipwreck, schooner, USA
- Specs:
- 306 tons, 6 crew
- Sunk:
- Saturday April 26, 1902
ran aground in bad weather - no casualties - GPS:
- 40°25.992' -73°10.620' (AWOIS 2013)
- Depth:
- 25 ft
More: Cornelia Soule ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, freighter, England
- Built:
- 1895, England
- Specs:
- ( 340 x 45 ft ) 3625 gross tons, 30 crew
- Sunk:
- Monday December 25, 1904
ran aground in snow storm, incompetence - no casualties - Depth:
- 20 ft
More: Drumelzier ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, dry-dock barge
- Depth:
- 110 ft
This anonymous big rectangular wooden dry-dock barge lies off Asbury Park, out near the edge of the Mud Hole. It is similar to the better-known Immaculata. The hulk of the wreck rises up as much as 10 feet, partially intact, while the upper sides have collapsed into the silty sand. Holes in the main wreckage allow penetration into the dark interior, which is surprisingly barren. A debris field of large rectangular ballast stones, wooden ribs, and rusted machinery extend from the western edge of the wreck, and to a lesser extent all around it. In exceptional late October fifty-foot visibility the view of this wreck from above was impressive, but overall this is not a very pretty site, and it is seldom dived. Good for lobsters, Sea Bass, scallops, and decompression.
More: drydock barge ...
The dive site is between 8th and 9th Streets (marker at upper-left)
Atlantic Beach bridge at right, inlet and ocean to the left (west)
In Queens borough, New York City!
East Rockaway Inlet is also known as Deb's Inlet, while New Yorkers optimistically, or perhaps ironically, call the Beach 8th Street dive site Almost Paradise. (Actually the name of a long-defunct dive shop there.) It is also referred to as Beach 9th Street. If that's not enough names for the same place, the waterway is officially called Reynold's Channel. So I suppose you could make six different entries in your logbook.
Beach 8th Street is the only part of the inlet that is accessible to divers, the rest is either private property or state park land where diving is prohibited. You can zoom, pan, and maximize the map above. The inlet is off to the left, marshland to the right, and Kennedy Airport above.
More: East Rockaway Inlet / Beach 8th Street ...
More: Ed's Schooner ...
More: Edwin Duke ...
Most copepods are harmless plankters or bottom dwellers. In fact, copepods are the most numerous of all crustaceans in terms of both species and population. However, since they generally range in size from 1/16" to 1/2 ", they are not of much interest to divers.
The Ribbon Louse ( Lernaeenicus spp. far right, 1 inch to 1 foot ) is a fish parasite. I have observed these bizarre creatures only in the aquarium. The head ( at lower left ) is buried in the body of the host, while the worm-like body hangs outside. Only the twin tails betray its true and almost unrecognizable nature - this is a copepod crustacean. And this is not even the extreme of crustacean evolution - some parasitic barnacles live completely inside their host, actually melding with the host's flesh until the two are inseparable, like some kind of science fiction nightmare.
More: Copepods ...