Garbage Beach

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

Parking: Paid Parking
Level: All levels

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.