Long Island Coast Dive Sites Chart
Long Island has many great sites for shore diving. Listed here are just a few for which I have scavenged descriptions. For a complete listing, pick up a copy of Dan Berg's Long Island Shore Diver at your local dive shop.
Do not ask for numbers - I will not give them out !
- Type:
- shipwreck, 74 gun ship-of-the-line, U.S. Navy
- Name:
- that place next to Indiana
- Built:
- 1820, Brooklyn NY USA
- Specs:
- ( 208 x 54 ft ) 2757 gross tons
- Sunk:
- April 1884
set adrift and grounded by storm while being dismantled, later deliberately burned - Depth:
- 20 ft
More: USS Ohio ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, freighter, England
- Built:
- 1898, England
- Specs:
- ( 380 x 47 ft ) 4193 gross tons
- Sunk:
- March 1, 1902; ran aground in storm - no casualties
- Depth:
- 25 ft
The Acara lies 1,500 to 1,800 ft offshore, in 25 ft of water. She is quite broken up, with wreckage spread over a wide area. Still, there are one or two sections with 10 feet or so of relief. Brass fittings and other artifacts are still being found.
More: Acara ...
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 ...
There are two actual Ponquoque bridges, the new one and the old one. You crossed the new bridge to get to the former Foster Road. The old bridge is where you will probably dive, although nothing is stopping you from diving the new bridge. Don't get caught in the channel between the two bridges, however, because it is considered a channel and it is illegal to dive in a channel in the town of Southampton. With that in mind, there is usually good parking at the bridge, but you will have to do some walking in order to get into the water.
More: Ponquogue Bridge ...
