Recent Edits
Dive Sites - pick your starting point
I figured out how to customize the map graphics and made them much better for the purpose here.
More: Not Quite Done ... ...
Artificial Reefs
The charts on this site have always been a pain to update. Starting with a spreadsheet of coordinates, converting DMS to decimal and then to pixel coordinates, then precisely placing markers in an image editor. Then generating a corresponding html image map for the links, and putting the whole thing in WordPress in such a way that WordPress doesn't simply eat it, as it is prone to do with a lot of things.
More: New Reef Charts ...
Weather Stations
... I hope. There may still be an old-style chart lurking somewhere, but I think I got them all. Above is the new weather chart, with extant stations and buoys. The old chart still showed ALSN6 - the Ambrose Tower that got knocked into the water so many times that they finally gave up on it. The replacement buoy is in the exclusion zone of the shipping lane, where it should be safe.
More: Just About Done ... ...
Dive Sites
Actually, the shape of things that have come. While re-doing the artificial reefs charts, I refined and extended the mapping plugin to the point where it seemed like it could do the shipwrecks charts as well. There is a structure and order to the artificial reefs while the shipwrecks are a big jumble, but I figured I'd give it a try, and it worked.
More: The Shape of Things to Come ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, scallop dredge, USA
- Built:
- 1980, St. Augustine FL
as Eleanor Eileen X - Specs:
- ( 68 ft ) 121 gross tons, 6 crew
- Sunk:
- Sunday, December 14, 1980
foundered, 2 survivors - Depth:
- 170 ft
More: Atlantic Princess ...
The dive site is between 8th and 9th Streets.
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 ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, Type IXc/40 U-boat, Kriegsmarine, Germany
- Built:
- 1942, Germany
- Specs:
- ( 252 x 22 ft ) 1051 displacement tons, 48-56 crew
- Sunk:
- Saturday April 16, 1944
by depth charges and gunfire from destroyer escorts USS Gandy, USS Joyce and USS Peterson after torpedoing tanker Pan Pennsylvania - 44 casualties. - Depth:
- 300 ft
More: U-550 ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, liner, Italy
- Name:
- A 16th century Genoese Admiral. This name had been previously carried by a number of Italian warships ( see page bottom )
- Built:
- 1951, Italy
- Specs:
- ( 700 x 90 ft ) 29083 displacement tons, 1706 passengers & crew
- Sunk:
- Thursday July 26, 1956
collision with freighter Stockholm ( 12000 tons) - 46 casualties - GPS:
- 40°29.405' -69°52.028' (AWOIS)
- Depth:
- 240 ft ( 190 ft minimum )
More: Andrea Doria ...
- Type:
- shipwreck
- Depth:
- 120 ft
A large steel wreck, partially intact.
Possibly the remains of the Kennebec.
More: Southern Lillian ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, freighter, USA
- Built:
- 1918, Lorain OH USA
- Specs:
- ( 251 x 43 ft ) 2622 gross tons, 38 crew
- Sunk:
- Monday July 12, 1920
collision with SS Comus - 2 casualties
More: Lake Frampton ...
- Type:
- shipwreck
- Depth:
- 80 ft
a small steel wreck, greatly decomposed
Possibly the remains of the Oklahoma.
More: Boiler Wreck ...
According to Gary Gentile in his book Shipwrecks of New Jersey - South, the following three vessels and four known wrecks may be related as suggested here. Or it could be something else entirely.
More: Mixed-up Wrecks ...
- 44009
- Absecon Inlet
- Adm Dupont
- Akron
- Alex Gibson
- Almirante
- American
- Astra
- Atlantic City
- Atlantus
- Azua
- Barrett
- boiler
- Brian C
- Brigantine Beach Wreck
- Brigantine Inlet
- Buoy
- Cape May
- Cape May Inlet
- car float
- Cassandra
- Cayru
- CH
- Champion
- Charles Morand
- Cherokee
- China
- China Junk
- City of Athens
- City of Georgetown
- Clermont
- Corson’s Inlet
- DE #09
- DE #10
- DE #11
- Deepwater
- Delaware Bay
- Delaware Bay
- DelJerseyLand
- DelJerseyLand
- Diggs
- dredge
- E Warren
- EF Moran
- Evening Star
- Florida
- Galimore's Cayru
- Gen'l Slocum
- Glory
- Great Egg
- Great Egg Inlet
- Gypsum
- Hereford Inlet
- Hornet
- Hvoslef
- India Arrow
- Jacob Jones
- John Marvin
- Kennebec
- King Cobra
- Lady Mary
- Lake Frampton
- Lemuel Burrows
- Little Egg
- McAllister
- Miraflores
- Misty Blue
- Mohawk
- Montgomery
- Moonstone
- Northern Pacific
- Nuphar
- Ocean City
- Oklahoma
- Pet
- Poseidon
- Ranald
- RJ Walker
- S-5
- Salem
- San Jose
- Sea Girt
- Shipping Lanes
- Shookus
- Sindia
- Slabs
- Southern Lillian
- Townsend's
- Townsend's Inlet
- Varanger
- Wayne
- Wildwood
- YP-387
More: Cape May Dive Sites Chart ...
- 4 Daughters
- 44025
- 44097
- 44402
- Akron
- Andrea Doria
- Azua
- Baldwin
- Bidevind
- Brian C
- Carolina
- Catamount
- Cayru
- Champion
- Coimbra
- Corvallis
- Deepwater Dump
- Durley Chine
- Edward H Cole
- Galimore's Cayru
- Gertrude
- Hebert
- Herbert Parker
- Isabel B Wiley
- Jacob Haskell
- Jacob Jones
- Lillian
- Maiden Creek
- Misty Blue
- Montgomery
- Mud Hole
- Murphy
- Norness
- Northern Pacific
- Pan Pennsylvania
- Princess
- Republic
- Rio Tercero
- RP Resor
- S-5
- Salmon
- SC-209
- Sebastian
- Shookus
- Sommerstad
- Southern Lillian
- Spikefish
- Suffolk
- Texas Tower
- Texel
- U-550
- U-869
- Varanger
- West
- Winneconne
More: Deep Sea Dive Sites ...
Fishing Ports
Commercial fishing in New Jersey is centered around several small ports, each of which has a particular type of processing or handling facility. Without the necessary facilities onshore, the boats would have no place to take their catch. Belford, in Raritan Bay, supports a fleet of long-liners and seiners with a fish processing plant. Point Pleasant is the locus for shellfisheries and supports a large fleet of resident and transient clam dredges. Barnegat Light has mainly long-line fishing boats and scallopers, while Atlantic City and Cape May have more clammers and trawlers. Lobster boats and head boats are found all over.
More: Commercial Fishing Ports ...
Aids to Navigation
Shipping Lanes
The US Coast Guard maintains a number of aids to navigation to assist vessels entering and leaving ports, both great ports like New York and Philadelphia, and minor ports like Shark River and Montauk. At sea, these aids take the form of buoys that mark out channels and shipping lanes.
Shipping lanes are like divided highways at sea. Inbound and outbound lanes are separated by a wide "Separation Zone, " which may or may not be depicted on the charts in this website, depending on the scale. Ships "drive on the right" just like cars in civilized countries. At the inbound end where all the lanes converge into the harbor channel, things get messy, and I didn't try to depict it. Likewise, the outer ends of the lanes are not exact either.
More: United States Coast Guard 3 ...
Weather Stations
44402 is a tsunami warning buoy, it doesn't do anything else.
More: Weather Forecast ...
- 44039
- Amsterdam
- Atlantic
- Barataria
- Bass
- Bayville
- Black Point
- Celtic/Cape Race
- Condor
- Culloden
- Downs
- Essex
- G Steers
- G-1
- G-2
- Grecian
- Horton's Point
- Huntington
- L-8
- Larchmont
- Lexington
- Lightburne
- Malden
- Matinecock
- Mattituck
- Montauk
- Mount Sinai
- Myronus
- Ohio
- Olinda
- Poling Bros #2
- Port Jefferson
- Shoreham
- Smithtown
- Snug Harbor
- Thames
- Thelma
- U-853
- Volund
- Water Gap
Long Island Sound averages 60 ft in depth, with the greatest depth of over 300 ft at the eastern end. Tidal effects are strongest at the narrow western end, where all the inrushing water flow piles up and makes tidal variations of up to 7 ft. Strong tidal currents are also prevalent, and visibility tends to be poorer than the open ocean, especially at depth.
More: Long Island Sound Dive Sites Chart ...
Sandy Hook Artificial Reef
1.6 nautical miles off Sea Bright
Depth: 40-60 ft
More: Sandy Hook Artificial Reef ...
Marine distance measurements are expressed in terms of nautical miles. A nautical mile is significantly different from a common or statute mile. The conversion is 1 nautical mile = 1.151 statute miles, or approximately 6076 ft ( vs. 5280 ft for a statute mile. )
Why such a confounded thing as this? Here's why:
More: Distance & Navigation ...
Artificial Reefs
Every fisherman has his favorite fishing area and thinks that it would be the perfect spot for an artificial reef. "Why don't you build a reef here?" they ask.
Obviously, the State could never satisfy every New Jersey angler with his own pet reef. Besides that, there are many constraints that limit both the number and location of ocean reef sites. New Jersey now has a network of 15 reef sites, evenly spaced from Sandy Hook to Cape May. In its original plan, the Reef Program estimated that 14 or 15 sites would be needed to provide access to anglers and divers from every New Jersey inlet.
More: Artificial Reefs Siting ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, steamer, USA
- Built:
- 1848, NY USA
- Specs:
- ( 275 x 32 ft ) 984 gross tons
- Sunk:
- Saturday December 27, 1866
beached to prevent foundering in a storm; old age & decay - no casualties
More: Horton's Point / Commodore ...
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 ...
- Home ...
- Dive Sites ...
- Artificial Reefs ...
- Marine Biology ...
- Artifacts ...
- Gear & Training ...
- Blog ...
- Cozumel ...
Welcome to NJScuba.net, a website dedicated to exploring the New Jersey / New York region underwater -- "Wreck Valley". Here you will find information on dive sites, marine biology, artifacts and activities, gear and training, and many other subjects.
More: Home ...
