Cape Cod Diving
July 14, 2023
I am asked frequently about the diving on Cape Cod, especially since spending most summers at our family’s cottage and regularly diving there. With the level of interest there is for Cape Cod (MA) and the increasingly widespread discussion surrounding the Great White, I wanted to provide details for those not familiar with Cape Cod Diving.
First for a little history, the Cape and the nearby islands were formed an estimated 18,000 years ago, when glaciers receded from the area and left a sandy substrate. Basically, most of the Cape and the islands -- particularly, the Outer Cape and Nantucket -- are just giant sand bars. And that’s what the majority of the shore dives are here.
The popular Cape shore dives are Sandwich Town Beach (Sandwich), Garbage Beach (Woods Hole, Falmouth) and Corporation Beach (Dennis) and Harbor View Beach (Dennis), both of those which are close to our place, all of which are amazing night dives with easy entry/exits. Like much of the coast of New Hampshire, shore diving here is relatively shallow and best to dive at high tide or divers will be walking long distances to get to any significant depth.
- Sandwich Town Beach (Sandwich)
- Corporation (Dennis)
- Harbor View Beaches (Dennis)
- Garbage Beach (Woods Hole, Falmouth)
Like much of the coast of New Hampshire, shore diving in the Cape is relatively shallow and best to dive at high tide or divers will be walking long distances to get to any significant depth.
Sandwich Town Beach in Sandwich, MA offers an easy access for divers to get in and out of the water. This site is best to dive at high tide for less of a walk car to water. At high tide, most of the dive will be 15- 25 feet. The bottom is a mix of small rocks and sand close into shore. As divers traverse further, there will be an area of larger rocks and clay bank reefs with lobsters burrowed in the clay, moon snails, crabs, sea robins, flounder, Tautog (blackfish) and the occasional mating horseshoe crabs. It’s an excellent site for night dives with lots of comb jellies and schools of squid.
Tide: High Tide
Winds: NW winds not ideal
Depths: 15-25Ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide
Corporation Beach in mid-Cape in Dennis, MA is much like Sandwich
town beach in terms of ease of entry, exit and in my opinion, one of the
best shore dives on the Cape and an awesome night dive. If you want to
see squid, this is the spot to have best chance to see them and just
about any kind of marine life native to Cape Cod Waters. Also as with
Sandwich Town beach, it is best to go in within 1 hour before and
exiting 1 hour after high tide. You do not want to dive the site
anytime the winds are from North, NW as it impacts the visibility
greatly. It’s a pretty good location too for lobsters where the large
boulders and rock fields are. Depth can get beyond 20 feet but requires
a very long swim.
I tend to dive Corporation Beach early in the morning or at the end of
the day as it’s less crowded with beachgoers and I can find parking
closer to entry /exit point. During the day, when the lifeguards are
present, divers will need to surface swim and descend away from the
swimming area as there is no diving permitted in designated swimming
areas.
Tide: High Tide
Winds: NW winds not ideal
Depths: 15-25Ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide
During the day, when the lifeguards are present, divers will need to surface swim and descend away from the swimming area as there is no diving permitted in the swimming areas designated by lifeguards.
There is an airplane wreck further out that can be accessed from a boat. The remnant of a Douglas AD-3 Skyraider off Corporation Beach at 35 feet but not much is left .
Harborview Beach near Sesuit Harbor, MA is another easy shore dive. Parking during the day is limited to Dennis Residents but it’s permitted after 4:00 PM. Like Corporation Beach, it’s best to dive within hour of high tide. As the site is 10 minutes from our house in Dennis Port, it’s nice to go there (or Corporation Beach) when it’s high tide and conditions are ideal for quick end of day dusk/night dive splash. Navigation is easy – keep the breakwater to your right exploring in the rocks for critters. Divers do need to be mindful of fisherman fishing off the breakwater. If you swim out further beyond the breakwater, just remember there is incoming and outgoing boat traffic right there. It’s a relatively shallow dive, high tide max depth is about 20ft at the end of the breakwater, but most of the dive is around 10ft at high tide. It’s a great site for beginners.
Tide: High Tide
Winds: NW winds not ideal
Depths: 5-20ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide
Divers that explore beyond the breakwater, remember there is incoming and outgoing boat traffic close by. With that in mind, it's a great site for beginners.
Garbage Beach, (a.k.a. Woods Hole Waterfront Park) Woods Hole/Falmouth, MA is a small narrow lawn overlooking a small sandy beach in Woods Hole Harbor with several small piers to the left extending out. The entry / exit is off the small stairs leading down to the small beach (“Garbage Beach”) that is to the right of 2nd Marine Biological Labs (MBL) pier. Don’t be turned off by the name of Garbage beach. I have no idea on how it got its name but It’s actually also a nice beach for non-divers while divers are in the water.
As for the dive, divers have two options to enter. One is a giant stride entry off the MBL Pier, the other is to walk down the small set of stairs off Garbage Beach. into the water.
Tide: High Tide
Winds: South winds are not ideal
Depths: 70ft
Entrance: Easy beach entrance
Tidal: Recommend 1 hour before high tide
During the descent, divers will first encounter eel grass and then will find a mucky, muddy bottom that starts to slope deeper (it'll be important to maintain buoyancy or divers will quickly silt up the bottom that will greatly impact visibility.) I head due south towards the end of the Pier, and then to the west there is a rocky boulder formation with lots of soft coral and rocks smothered with yellow tunicates. Divers should be careful not to stray too far left due to heavy boating and docking areas. There really is not much to see. Also, divers are NOT to dive under the any NOAA ships that may be docked at the Woods Hole Pier nor under the Woods Hole Pier which requires a permit. Most of the dive I stay above 40-50 feet staying close to the Formation of rocks near the MBL Pier or under the Pier. In the winter, it’s a great site for Nudibranchs and in the late summer a great site for coming across Gulf Stream Orphan (GSO) Tropical fish, Pipe fish and Northern Puffer fish.
What is there to see? I’ve been fortunate to find a lot of antique bottles, clay pipe stems (probably why named Garbage Beach?). Mostly old Soda/Pop and milk bottles.
But mostly I find Tautog/Blackfish, Flounder, Spider, Horseshoe Crabs, Sea Robins and the occasional spiny dogfish. This time of year, there are a lot of squid nests. Garbage beach is by far a great dusk/night dive as you’ll be blessed with comb jellies, squid.
Though the site is protected, you want to avoid diving there any time the wind blows from the south. Also, need to be aware of heavy boat traffic during the season as a popular spot for recreational boats to fish from. Also, you will hear the rumble of the constant Woods Hole Steamship Authority’s Ferry’s heading to and from nearby Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, but they are far away from the area you’ll be diving as you will not be going out to the channel. It just sounds like they are above you as sound travels far in the water.
Note parking is very limited during the season so best to dive early AM or late day. The meters do take Credit Cards though I bring Quarters just in case as sometimes, some of the credit card readers do not work. It’s .25 Cents for 15 minutes (Believe max is 2 to 3 hours).
Parking is free after 6:00 PM!
Close by is the NOAA Fisheries Woods Hole Science Aquarium a 2 min walk away from the beach and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Science Center a 5 min walk away. So good apres dive things to do on a day down there
The Cape also offers some great dive spots offshore. Unfortunately, there are no dive charter boats operating out of Cape Cod. Divers options are to charter a fishing boat for the day or rent a boat. A great dive site is the Target ship (James Longstreet), a liberty ship sunk in the 50s off Brewster in relatively shallow water (16 fsw at high tide). It is called the target ship as the ship was used for Target practice by military aircraft. Lots of great sea life, fish hide in the hunk of the wreck. Another good dive site for lobsters is Scorton Ledge near Sandwich. It’s a popular fishing spot so you have to be careful of the boat traffic. I’ve also had luck in the past finding Scallops nearby. And yes, there are plenty of wrecks off the Cape. A couple good books are “Exploring the Waters of Cape Cod Shipwrecks and dive sites by Donald L. Ferris and a shore diving guide to New England by Jerry Shine.
Nowadays there is no talk about diving on Cape Cod without bringing up sharks. Yes, the Cape is known to have one of the highest shark populations in the country. There have been more sightings of sharks over the past few years, mostly off the eastern end of the Cape in areas such as Nauset Beach, head of meadow beach, the Chatham peninsula, and Cape Cod National Seashore. Most shark incidents are close to shore where there are large populations of seals, the Great White’s food source. These are mostly in areas where most divers do not dive as visibility is poor from churning sand and there is also pretty much nothing to see. (Curious to see where sharks are appearing? Use the Atlantic White Shark Sighting and Resource App. )
My only shark sightings in diving on Cape have been the rare sightings of Spiny DogFish. The chances of seeing a shark while SCUBA diving are low, and chances of being bitten by one are meager–one in a billion! Even though shark bites do occur, the risk of fatal bites is low. The incidents that have happened have been to swimmers/bathers swimming or surfers surfing in the areas the sharks feed- where divers do not dive. To put it most simply – we are not their food, they do not seek us out, we are not a natural prey of sharks, and they do not like the taste of us divers! It is not right to say that sharks do not attack divers, however such incidents are rare. Last documented Shark attack on a diver was in Rockport, MA in 1965!
Similar to Rhode Island, is the number of dive shops on Cape Cod offering full service of instruction, gear rental, service and more importantly air fills. Since I have been diving on the Cape, one shop (Cape Cod Dive Locker) closed and the other Cape Cod Sea Sports got out of diving altogether and focused on sales of Kayaks and cycling gear. Options for air fills on are to get tanks filled before reaching the Cape (on the way to the Cape) at Divers Market, a full service dive shop in Plymouth, MA, or once reaching the Cape, the spot to go is Adventure Diving in Eastham which offers instruction, services, rentals and air fills. Contact Bob Peck to arrange for fills.
I believe Aqua Center in Sandwich is also still offering fills. The proprietor is now focusing on Ice Cream business there. (Shipwreck Ice Cream). Note during busy peak periods on hot summer days, one may need to be very patient if in need of fills.
Cape Cod is also blessed with hundreds of freshwater lakes and ponds of which many offer excellent diving opportunities. One of the more popular freshwater locations is Hathaway Pond in Barnstable which is a very popular diving spot for divers of all levels and for SCUBA Training. (and a great post ocean 2nd dive spot so won’t have to do a full on gear rinse!) It's recommended October-June.
