Beneath the Waves: Dive into New Jersey Wrecks
By: Craig Tomlin, Supervising Biologist
When you think of diving in New Jersey, it probably stirs up thoughts of dark, cold water or war stories of old-time divers who found an unidentified shipwreck. You may even think about long, slow boat rides, salty captains with stories of sea monsters, or maybe a docuseries you saw on TV. You may be surprised to know that you can find all of that, plus soft and hard corals, summertime water temperatures in the 70s, diverse species of fish, and smiling faces topside when you return.
While New Jersey is known for its historical shipwrecks and deep, challenging dives, there is a lighter side as well. Many tropical divers are surprised by the amount of sea life that resides off the New Jersey coast.
So, what will you see down there? Let’s take a quick trip to a local dive site!
After a short ride, you don your gear, perform your safety checks, and make your way into the water. As you start your descent, the first thing you notice is the thermocline (distinct layer of warmer to cooler water) but when you are diving, you can see the change before you feel it. Think of it like oil and water in a glass: they don’t mix but create a visible barrier between each other. Now, in the cooler water, you start to close in on your target. Most of your diving will be targeting either natural or artificial structures, but for this article, we will group them together and call them wrecks.
Out of the greenish water, you see light and dark shapes appear, almost in a woodland camouflage pattern. This is not an elaborate hoax by divers trying to hide their favorite wrecks; it is your first glimpse of the sea life that resides on and in the reef systems of New Jersey.
Many wrecks are covered by a combination of hard white corals (Northern star coral and ivory bush coral), soft corals (sea fingers and sea fans), and blue mussels. As you get closer to the wreck, you will see flashes and streaks of some of the fish that are not happy with your presence (we will get back to them later). Once you hit your target depth and take a minute to acclimatize, you start to notice the sand waves on the bottom; on the back side of each wave, there are shells and rocks slowly moving back and forth with the current. Naturally, your eyes start to gaze at the intersection of the wreck and the sand, and it is here that the magic begins. This is the area that provides cover for both predator and prey species, as well as a break from the ocean currents. It is here where the ocean has set a trap between the ever-moving sand and the stationary wreck.
It is in this zone that you see starfish and their prey, sea urchins, locked in a battle of life and death. Next to this showdown, there is a dark hole formed by some type of creature, so you fire up your dive torch and peer inside. Could it be a Jonah crab, a rock crab, or maybe a lobster? As the light shines in, you see the white chin and slender gray body of a 4 foot conger eel. Just next to the home of the conger eel, you see a larger opening in the wreck caused by years of decay. Again, you peer inside, but this time the hole is backlit by the green glow from the sun above. You know that if you stay nice and still and take calm breaths something is going to appear in this bright green window. Black figures start to emerge from the edge and the bottom; tautog, seabass, and cunner start to fill every corner of your view, until you unknowingly exhale and your bubbles scare them back into hiding.
As you continue down the side of the wreck, you look up to see a school of bluefish scream by and scare all the tiny fish back into hiding. Looking down, you notice odd-looking sand and two eyes: it is a buried summer flounder watching you swim by. If he feels comfortable about his ability to hide, he will not move even if you get really close.
Now that you know what a fish camouflaged in the sand looks like, you start to search the sand and the wreck. As you slowly kick forward, move your eyes to scan back and forth. You spot another oddity in the sand waves; probably a clearnose skate or a roughtail ray, but as you get closer, the shape seems very odd: it’s an angel shark over 4 feet long.
When you finally make your way to the top of the wreck, there are triggerfish fluttering around, and a giant tornado of bonito swimming just off the edge of the wreck. Staring at the bonito, you see a small school of weakfish scoot through another opening in the wreck. You follow your line of sight to that opening, and to your surprise, you see feathered blennies and a small grouper.
It is time to start your way back to the surface, but the sights don’t stop. On your safety stop, you watch tiny ocean oddities float by, some being egg sacks, salps, and copepods. That quick 45 minutes underwater is over.
Good people, amazing sights, and vibrant sea life are always on tap when diving in New Jersey, and if you get lucky, you may have that salty captain from maritime folklore. Contact your local dive shop, get dive certified, and enjoy the underwater spectacle that is New Jersey diving.
