Scenic dive: Spodsbjerg North Beach - The Langeland Belt
This is a real jewel of a shore dive with beautiful belts seaweed everywhere: serrated wrack, bladder wrack, beds of eelgrass and black carrageen. During the summer there are enormous numbers of juvenile fish and two-spotted gobies.
You can enter and leave the water 5m from the road.
Depth: 5 meters.
Highlights
The many flatfish and pipefish.
Currents: None
Photography: Good macro photography.
About Spodsberg: North Beach
When you stand and look out over the Langelands Belt a few hundred meters north of Spodsberg’s ferry terminal, close to the first set of fishing nets, you might see the big ships far offshore in the shipping lanes, or perhaps the ferry which docks nearby. But it is below the surface where it all happens.
Enter the water mid way between the grey house and the fishing nets/poles. Swim out at a right angle to the beach, before turning to the north after some time, then following the nets/poles back to the shore. Check if there are nets in place before entering the water, and keep a safe distance if they are.
Close to the shore there is a deep depression, of the type known locally as a “bathtub”, but the water quickly becomes shallower and you must swim over a narrow sandbank before starting the dive in earnest. You will quickly see the first of the large belts of seaweed with sea lace reaching up to the surface and serrated wrack waving gently in the water, as well as areas of gravel and sand. You will find plenty of marine life, including many lugworms. Common crabs searching for food or buried in the sand together with the flounders, which are most often found at the edge of the seaweed and eelgrass beds.
Beautiful belts of seaweed can be seen everywhere with serrated wrack, bladder wrack and patches of eelgrass. As soon as you reach a depth of 2 m you will find very large stones covered in black carrageen and other smaller species of seaweed. During the summer there are enormous numbers of juvenile fish and two-spotted gobies - one of Denmark’s smallest fish.
The sea bed is a mix of areas of gravel and of sand, and here you can find lesser, greater and snake pipefish. The hard bottom often gives good visibility, and there are many flatfish here. The remains of old, broken fishing poles that are now beautifully overgrown stand on the seabed like sculpture. These can be home to small wrasse, jealously guarding their territory.
This is a real jewel of a shore dive, but please be aware of one potential hazard: when the ferry comes in, it produces some large waves, so please take care when entering or leaving the water. Also clear mark your position with the dive/“A” flag, so nobody will be in any doubt that there are divers in the water.
How to get here:
From Rudkøbing drive towards Spodsberg. Just before the ferry terminal turn to the left onto Løkkeby Strandvej. After a few hundred meters you will pass a grey house, park around 50m later by the side of the road.
Read more about safety