The five centuries of New York Harbor's use as a port gateway to the "New World" has created a wide array of diving and wreck sites all along the Hudson Basin to the Atlantic Ocean and out to Long Island Sound. Since 1612, European ships have foundered and sank along these shores and New York (formerly New Amsterdam) has accumulated a rich Maritime history as a result. For those seeking adventure beyond the beach, New York City offers top-notch scuba diving in the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound, most notably for those numerous boat wrecks just off its shoreline.
The waters off New York City and Long Island have been dubbed ‘Wreck Valley,’ so named for all the unfortunate ships that met their untimely doom there. Queens and the Bronx all share access to the Long Island Sound and Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn have coastal beaches on the Atlantic Ocean.
Wrecks in Long Island’s waters range from the 508-ft passenger steamer, Oregon, which sank in 1886 to the Lizzie D, a Prohibition-era rum runner sunk in 1922, among many other famous ships like the Andrea Doria, the USS San Diego and the infamous U-851. Dive depths range from shore dive shallows to technical wrecks at 300+ fsw.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has set up artificial reefs all along the offshore area consisting of old Subway train cars, spans of the deconstructed Tappan Zee Bridge and even local tug-tenders that serviced New York waterways. These can be accessed by boat.
Scuba diving spots in Long Island, New York include challenging ocean dives off its South Shore, and calmer dives off the beaches of Long Island’s North Shore. Beach 8th Street in Far Rockaway Queens, and Orchard Beach in City Island, Bronx are prime examples of shore-dive sites still in active use by divers today.
After your day of diving, New York City dining and Broadway shows are available, stop by for New York Pizza or Dim Sum. Visit the Brooklyn's Coney Island and Aquarium, the American Museum of Natural History, the Bronx Zoo, the New York Botanical Gardens, the World's Fair Park in Queens or Central Park of Manhattan, all of which are great local attractions.
Diving is year-round, but A drysuit is required from November to May. Best diving is from August to October when warm waters from the Gulf Stream current and warm surfaces temperatures combine with better visibility and more pelagic sea life.
New York City and Long Island dive sites range from North shore - shore dives to South shore boat dives. These can be easily accessed through the Long Island Railroad and NYC MT's mass transit system of busses and trains. By car, the outer boroughs - Queens and Brooklyn- can be accessed by driving the Northern or Southern State Parkways or the Long Island Expressway. In the Bronx, the Cross-Bronx Expressway and Bronx River Parkway, cross the borough. The BQE and Belt Parkways service Brooklyn and the Staten Island Expressway services Richmond County. This entire NYC area can be accessed by the I-95, or I-80 which cross through the George Washington Bridge into the Bronx, the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan or the Verrazano Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island.
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