Peirce Island - Portsmouth, NH

Dive #367: When I arrived at the dirt parking lot (yay! no long hike!), I found a huge crew of divers ready to enjoy the huge number of nudis. We geared up, hit the water, and descended 40 minutes before slack. We were met with some current pushing us back toward entry, but it was manageable. We headed toward the slope and were met with dense hydroids coating every surface and several varieties of nudis all over the place. The F. verrucosas were gathered in huge groups with some climbing out to the end of the hydroid stalks to grab the tasty ends. My favorite find of the dive was a pair of F. verrucosa both at the end of the stalk munching on the same hydroid. It reminded me of Lady and the Tramp, but with shell-less snails and stinging hydroids. The D. frondosus were HUGE, but mostly difficult to photograph with their nearly perfect camouflage. I spotted an interesting shrimp I couldn't photograph - I think it was a sculptured shrimp. As we did a safety stop in the seaweed on the slope, we found some tiny tiny rim-backed nudis, a false doris, and a few Ancula gibbosa, which I hadn't seen before. The tide never really went totally slack, but it was comforting that it was pushing us back toward the entry point. Awesome day!