Saturday Night Ledge (SNL)
Description
A team favorite, Saturday Night Ledge (SNL) is a rocky mount approaching 70-80 fsw depth at its peaks. It sits in 130 fsw deep water with a gravely sand bottom composition.
At three nautical miles off shore from the Gloucester Harbor breakwater, the water is typically free of sediment. The depths mean there’s less light, and therefore, a lot less seaweed in the summer months.
The topography attracts numerous invertebrate and fish species who pull plankton from the water column. You’ll alway encounter frilled anemone, tubularian hydroids, and cunner, but keep an eye out for longhorn sculpin, wolffish, and red anemones which are frequently spotted at the site.
Navigation is relatively straightforward. The shallowest prominence is about 200x200ft. It has a trench dividing the north and south and the deepest water can be found east/south east at the bottom of the trench or well off the southern boundary. North you’ll encounter sloping transitions to depths of 100-110 feet and west you’ll find shallower shoulder at 80-90 feet for several hundred feet before deeper water is reached.
Entry & Exit
Boat access only
Exposure
SNL is well off shore so exposure is pretty high from all sides
Hazards
This is an off shore site so do not approach unless seas are calm.
Plan your dive and dive your plan as it's easy to rack up deco time given the depths.
The site is also popular with anglers in the summer months so make sure you have a line cutter handy.
Parking
N/A
Gallery
Jerry Shine provided much of the written dive site content on the shore diving sites around New England from his 2005 publication: A Shore Diving Guide to New England which is currently out-of-print. His 2017 publication A Year Underwater: Twelve Months of Diving, Fraternizing with Marine Life, and Just Having a Great Time, from the St. Lawrence River to West Palm Beach is available for purchase on Amazon.
If lobstering be sure that you are licensed, have a gauge for the area you are lobstering in, have your numbers on your cylinder and flag, and don’t land any shorts, longs, notches, or eggers. For more information please reference the mass.gov regulations site here.