Shark Dive off Catalina

Dive Report: Avalon Banks, 5 miles off Avalon, Catalina.
 
Depth:          48/ 62 ft (bottom depth 1,500 ft)
Dive times:     50/ 53 min
Viz:  A hazy 30-40'
Temps:          ~62 degrees
Currents:       light

Went out with Scuba Luv on the King Neptune Monday to see what their shark dives were all about. We motored out 4-5 miles off Avalon out over the Avalon Banks with a bottom depth of 1,500 ft. Filmed Avalon Mayor Bob Kennedy and the rest of the crew setting up the shark cage, as well as a diver or two who inspected the "flimsy" aluminum cage with some concern.

Laura, a third year law student, was the first one in the water and in the cage. I guess she is just used to swimming with "sharks." She was out of the cage quickly and all the divers swam free with the cage as a depth reference or resting point.

A five foot blue arrived first on the scene. After checking us out from a distance, it made several close passes allowing me to get some good video footage from which to extract stills for my newspaper column (archived on my web site at http://www.starthrower.org/products/DDDB/DDDB_200-249/DDDB_212%20blue%20sharks%20pt%201.htm and http://www.starthrower.org/products/DDDB/DDDB_200-249/DDDB_213%20blue%20sharks%20pt%202.htm). In fact, it accidentally bumped my housing as I was descending to film it from above and it decided to ascend directly beneath me. Read more in my column.

Also had two smaller (about 3') blues and a 4-5' mako appear, but they kept their distance.

I'm not a big fan of blue water diving, but this dive was lots of fun and the group of divers on board were great, too.

2:36 PM - 10/19/2006 - comments {3} - post comment

Ah Baloney

On a recent dive at a site I often visit, I decided to explore an area that I had never looked at before. In fact, it was an area I doubt any diver has really looked at because it just does not look diveable.

As I approached my intended exploration site, I noticed a green abalone. Although most abalone were decimated decades ago by the one-two punch of sport and commercial harvesting, and a disease known as withering syndrome, it is not unusual for me to see 1-3 abalone at this site if I look hard enough.

I continued into the area and discovered a 5-6' long crevice with 7 abalone in it. Now THAT was a find. Abalone are broadcast spawners that need to be no more than 18" apart for successful reproduction. I continued on and counted 28 green abalone before I stopped counting! This is the largest cluster I've seen in about 25 years. I'm estimating there were at least 100 abalone in this one small area.

I reported the find to the California Dept. of Fish & Game. Hopefully this refugium will provide a breeding cluster to help restock abalone populations over the next few decades.

I also saw additional abs at the other two sites we dove today. One adult looked like the flat abalone. One of the young ones also looked different... possibly a baby pink or even a white.

Also filmed my second and third brachiopods. They were on the bottom at about 175 ft. Cool.

Healthy kelp is beginning to return at some of the sites on the windward side of the island and the West End. Great to see real kelp "forests" reappearing after the summer's blast furnace.

8:00 AM - 10/11/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

A Heck of a Great Day!

After a week out of the water, I went down to Scuba Luv this morning expecting a simple two-tank dive since there were only five divers on board besides myself. However, not long after I entered the door, I discovered this would be a special dive day.

9:05 PM - 10/4/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Get Them While They're Hot... Six DVD's for $100 US

After transitioning from Hi-8 to digital-8 to mini-DV, I'm now looking at one more step "up..." to HDV! Astoundingly I discovered from my contacts at Light & Motion that the video housing I've used for all three prior formats will also house the new Sony HC-3 HD camcorder. Now that's what I call a GREAT product... no dedicated housings for me!

Now to acquire my new Sony HC-3, I'm offering (for a limited time) ALL SIX of my educational underwater DVD's for $100 US plus $10 shipping (Priority Mail in the US only) and California state sales tax  ($8.75) if sent within the state. That's a $45 savings off the normal retail price.

For further details, see the following web page on my site:

http://www.starthrower.org/products/dvd/DVD_special.htm

5:31 PM - 9/28/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Practice and Timing

As for time,. I haven't had much lately so my blogs are few and far between... still diving "too" frequently, editing the footage, and creating new episodes for my cable TV show to have much time to blog. That bwill change as "winter" (in SoCal?) approaches.

Had an interesting day yesterday. It was a three tank dive on my fave, Scuba Luv's King Neptune. I've been doing a lot of deep (> 130 ft) diving to film the critters there in anticipation of a new episode of my TV show on "Deep" Ecology.

First two dives were to 180 feet for a total dive time each of 50 min. I issentially follow a transect line straight down from the anchor line to max depth, move about 15 ft up current (to get out of the resuspended silt cloud) and swim an up transect to the shallows.

Both dives were uneventful with no problems. Plenty to film given my limited bottom times (I only stay below 100 ft for 10-15 min), and quite different life at the two dive sites.

I planned to only go to 140 ft on my third dive and as I approached that max depth, I looked up to see a torpedo (Pacific electric) ray about 7 ft above me! I started filming it and it stayed with me for quite a long time. I kept an eye on my deco obligation as I filmed and as I neared 30 min, I started heading back to the shallows making several deep stops along the way.

I've gotten pretty good at judging my air consumption and managing my gas (straight air). I figured I would complete the full 31 min deco obligation using my primary tank. I always keep the pony mounted, but have never had to use it for deco.

I completed the obligatory deco as my SPG hit 600 psi. I practiced gas management for years when I was doing non-deco dives so I'd be ready for these type dives. Since I'd been on two very deep dives, I decided to do an extra 10 min of deco using my pony which gave me a good safety margin (all other obligatory deco stops were similar over-extended for safety).

The take home message? The years I spent practicing gas management during my non-deco dives really has paid off now that I do frequent deco dives. I used to set goals for my diving... for example, one dive to 100 ft for 45 min and a second one with the "same" profile from the second half of my HP120 tank. I'd have to adjust my depths through the two dives to make sure I had enough gas to complete my goal and surface with ~500 psi. It has given me a good knowledge base on my air consumption rates at different depths... pretty handy skill now!

5:12 PM - 9/28/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

"Nothing" Left Down There

I mentioned that I've been doing a lot of deep diving on air lately. I want to again emphasize that I do NOT recommend this to anyone else. It is not a decision I can make for anyone but me.

With that said, it has been interesting to watch the changes at these depths over the last few weeks. Our summer surface temperatures were incredibly warm this year, especially in late July and early August. Surface temps of 79 F were recorded on several days. However temps at the depths I was diving were as low as 50 F (even colder than they were during the winter).

In the past few weeks surface temps have dropped back to the low 70's. However temps at depth have risen significantly. At one site temps at 160 ft were 50-53 degrees 2-3 weeks ago. Last weekend it was a balmy 63 F!

Unfortunately this has affected the critters that I descend to film. Many of the species appear to have gone deeper in search of colder water... apparently to depths where I won't follow. Since they are not there, my profiles at these sites will return to normal rec diving limits. My only interest in the deep diving is to film the critters that are there.

Have a group of divers from another board in today thru Sunday, so it is time to get wet (or at least prepare the gear).

7:56 AM - 9/13/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Dr. Bill Returns

What a summer... and it ain't over yet! I've been doing so much diving, video editing and creation of my products that I haven't had much time to blog. Then my old log-on wouldn't work, but fortunately Gabriel fixed that so I'm back on MDL, although I won't be blogging as frequently as before until the dive boat settles back to 2-3 trips a week.

Diving 4-6 times a week, then editing the footage acquired and creating new episodes of my cable TV show has certainly kept me out of "trouble" this summer. I've added some new dimensions to my diving as well.

First, we all know that there are two types of divers: those who pee in their wetsuits, and those who lie about it. Well, now there is a third type: me! I just completed my 61st consecutive dive without peeing. In the last 86 dives I've only pee'd once. These are world class records for me.

Second, I've continued a practice I began about a year ago... deep diving on air (the gas the Creator gave us and the only one I trust.. until I learn tri-mix). I regularly dive in the 160-180 ft range with my deepest dive being to 200 ft (my absolute basement depth on air). NOTE: I DO NOT ADVOCATE THIS OR RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE ELSE. The only reason I've been doing it is to film the often unique creatures one sees at such depths in our waters. I now know why there are so few nudies in Catalina waters... they are mostly below recreational depths.

I continue to dive off the King Neptune as often as they go out. My last dive in our great dive park was in early June when a lovely mermaid came out to visit... and finally dive as my buddy!

I have also decided to finally upgrade to an HD camcorder. I discovered that my housing (which has accomodated Sony Hi-8, digital-8 and now mini-DV camcorders) can be used to house the Sony HC-3! No need for a new housing.

To achieve this purchase, I am now offering a special sale of all six (6) of my current DVD's for $100 plus $10 shipping and California state sales tax (8.75%) if applicable. That's a savings of $45 on the package. Check out the following web page for more information: Dr. Bill's DVD Special.

11:53 AM - 8/31/2006 - comments {2} - post comment

High and Dry

No blogs from me. I've been high (no, not that kind of high) and dry since July 3rd thanks to a summer cold I caught, most likely imported by one of our many visitors. Guess you have to take the bad with the good. At least I was able to get a few more episodes of my "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" cable TV show completed and write half a dozen of my weekly newspaper columns.

Had thought of going out on the King Neptune this AM, but I called the shop and it was just a group going out to play... no real customers. Gave me an unexpected "free" day, which I'm spending here and in my storage unit clearing out the accumulated crappola. The King Neptune is going out Thursday through at least Sunday so I'll have plenty of diving coming up to keep my gills moistened.

9:49 AM - 7/12/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

July 1st: Yellowtail Point, Isthmus Reef and Torqua Springs

My dives at the start of the Fourth of July weekend were not particularly good. The bat rays are all feeding on sandy bottoms and the dive sites chosen all had serious visibility problems because of that. When the bat rays "hammer" the soft bottom with their heads, looking for Chaetopterus and other tube worms as well as bivalves, the resuspended sand and silt can cause visibility to drop to zero!

11:32 AM - 7/4/2006 - comments {1} - post comment

July 2nd: Empire Landing Quarry, Italian Gardens, Garibaldi Reef

Back on the King Neptune for three more dives on July 2nd. Many of the fun group from yesterday's trip were on board, as well as a number of new divers bringing the total number of divers on board to 30. Pretty packed boat, but it was another fun group.

11:30 AM - 7/4/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

July 3rd: Twin Rocks, Ship Rock and Little Gibraltar

Dive 1: Twin Rocks
Max depth: 160 ft
Temp: 50 F
Vis: 25-50 ft depending on depth

Have spent the last few dives here looking in the shallows for a Mexican sea cucumber in the genus Holothuria, so I decided to drop deep instead. I was rewarded with what was probably a Doriopsilla albopunctata nudibranch feeding, although they are hard to distinguish from Dendrodoris fulva.

My deep diving has been very rewarding. I rarely see nudibranchs in the shallower waters here off Catalina (my guess is due to fish densities there in the kelp forests but it could be cold, productive waters since I do see them at colder sites like Ship Rock and Farnsworth Bank). However I've been seeing a number of species at depths below 100 ft.

Not much of interest below 100 ft so I slowly came back to that depth and moved over to the pinnacle here at 100 to 60 ft. It was covered with grayish zoanthids (probably Epizoanthus scotinus) with the parasitic zoanthid (Parazoanthus lucificum, at its northernmost range here on Catalina) covering most of the gorgonians. Also the nudibranch Anisodoris nobilis which appeared to be feeding on the orange social tunicate (Pycnoclavella stanleyi).

Spent a bit of time on the pinnacle and went into deco so I slowly ascended to 40 ft for a short stop and then to 20 ft to finish off my dive in the thick of the kelp forest. Saw a small mating circle of black sea hares (Aplysia vaccaria) and evidence of their "Mama Mia's day old spaghetti" egg masses in the shallows.

Dive 2: Ship Rock
Max depth: 160 ft
Min temp: 53 F
Vis 20-40 ft depending on depth

Second site was Ship Rock. Hadn't planned to do a second deep dive, but the King Neptune anchored right off the ridge on the northeast side of the rock so I descended along the anchor line and dropped down to one of my favorite spots below the pinnacle and deep wall. I've had some great sightings here.

There were dozens of cormorants at the surface above the ridge and a number of sea lions as well. When I dropped down to depth I realized why... a very large school of blacksmith were swimming above the ridge. Had a few sea lions buzz me. Always a good sign to have sea lions in the water!

I filmed a "new" fish species I wasn't sure of but thought was a chilipepper (form of rockfish). While editing the video this AM it appears I was correct since the prominant lateral line is embedded in a reddish stripe. Also filmed a small rosy rockfish.

Saw a Tritonia festiva nudibranch on a gorgonian and filmed it briefly (the first time I've been able to). Unfortunately I was already in deco and didn't want to spend much time at that depth filming it.

In the shallows swell was enough to limit my filming. Too bad since I had a good opportunity to film the flatworm Prostheceraeus bellostriatus which has a whitish body with thin blaack striped running the length.

Dive 3: Little Gibraltar Reef
Max depth: 90 ft
Min temp:
Vis: 10-20 ft

This site, known locally as the Bill Kroll Hi Spot, is one rarely dived by most visitors to Catalina. It consists of a pinnacle extending to within 30 ft of the surface from a depth of 100+ ft.

Visibility was poor and the anchor wasn't on the reef. I hot two small boulders before I got to the pinnacle itself. This is always a great place to film moray eels and the red rock cleaner shrimp that accompany them. Saw at least 6 morays and had some good interactions between the shrimp.

Fishers know of this site based on the amount of fishing line and lures snagged on it. I found three fishing lures in one area and filmed them. They appeared to be male because they had these barbed projections off the rear. Some time I'm going to have to dive this site and just cut as much of the fishing line as I can. I have gotten snagged here before.

Had a nice octopus in a crevice that had wrapped its tentacle around its eye which framed it nicely. A school of white surfperch were also aggregating here and I was able to get some footage, although not of the best quality.

Couldn't relocate the anchor at the end of my dive so I did a mid-water safety stop, but wasn't happy with it so I surfaced to see where the boat was and swam to the anchor line to do another stop.

No diving today... fireworks and dinner with some of the folks who dove the King Neptune with us Sat and Sun. Happy Fourth to all who celebrate it!

10:34 AM - 7/4/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

A Stormy Day... Is This June, or August, or Winter?

The wind was howling and the seas were rough when we started out. Had to pull inside Long Point and dive Pirate's Cove as the only sheltered site along that stretch of coast. Friends of mine (Anastasia and Jeffrey) were on board as was a group of Christian divers who wore t-shirts that said "He died for Us, We Dive for Him" on the back. T

hey were very nice folks and didn't proselytize at all.

First dive site A & J followed me. I wasn't running into much at the site. Found a blue towel on the bottom at 30 ft and was filming it when two mating sheep crabs ran right onto the towel! I filmed them and continued to follow them as they remained "coupled." Actually it looked like they were finished mating and the male was just holding onto the female to allow time for his sperm to fertilize her eggs before another male got a chance... a strategy I don't think I will try! Then I saw a school of what I thought were corbina. When I edited the footage I saw that they were spotfin croaker instead so I was pleased they just drifted and allowed me to film them. After leaving the croakers, I startled a harbor seal. I was able to get a few quick shots of it, but for the most part it stayed well off in the kelp forest. Second dive site was Yellowtail Reef where the bat rays had created zero vis a week or two ago. I dropped down to depth (50 ft) and tried to go deeper. I didn't recognize any of the features as I swam along. When I looked at my depth gauge, I was still at the same depth! I had been swimming along shore instead of offshore.

Came back up to the reef itself (30-40 ft) but really didn't find the best part of it. When I surfaced, the boat was MUCH farther away than I even imagined. Turned out the boat had dragged anchor... several times. It was well offshore (quarter mile) in an area where the GWS hunt. It was quite a surface swim to the boat, a good workout for this old geezer. One of the women panicked and her eyes glazed over while she was swimming back to the boat. Her husband towed her, and the wife of another guy who had become disoriented and was heading out to sea. The DM went in and rescued them and we did a live boat pickup of the other 8 divers. I helped bring in the tired divers on the swim step.

Exciting! Third dive was Garibaldi Reef to look for soupfin sharks. No one saw any. I did run into several horn sharks and filmed a few. At the end of the dive I ran into an octopus out in the open and he let me follow him for about 5 min. filming as he walked around in the open.

Cool. When I surfaced, the boat was again much further away than I expected. It had swung 180 degrees on the anchor chain because the wind had kicked up. Fortunately the surface current took me almost directly towards the boat so it was a long but easy swim.

11:34 AM - 6/30/2006 - comments {2} - post comment

Ladies... Dive Roatan Sept 2-9th

Haven't been able to keep up with my blogging since last weekend's video footage was so rich I've spent the week editing rather than being on-line. I've decided that it is finally time for me to take advantage of a SingleDiver.com singles trip by going to Roatan in September. SD is looking for more females to join the trip (the ratio is 15:13 male to female at this point). I'm wait listed and if I can convince two more females to go, I'll be able to as well. If you are female and interested in going to Roatan for a week, read the following and check out this web site:

ITS SINGLES WEEK AT FANTASY ISLAND BEACH RESORT!


SingleDivers.com is joining Fantasy Island Beach Resort to bring you the 3rd Annual Singles Fantasy Week in Roatan Sept 2-9, 2006!

You won't want to miss this Singles Extravaganza...over 90 single and buddyless divers from around the world filled the resort to capacity last year!!

This year will be no exception! And for $599 + taxes pp d/o and $799 + taxes pp s/o how can you afford to not join in on all the fun!!! ($695 total d/o with taxes or $927 total s/o with taxes)

Deposit requirements - Double Occupancy = $200; Single Occupancy = $300

Payment schedule

$200 for d/o or $300 for s/o to secure your spot,
50% or $347.50 for d/o or $463.50 s/o due 90 days prior to departure or June 2
50% less deposit or $147.50 + nitrox if applicable for d/o or $163.50 + nitrox if applicable for s/o due 60 days prior to departure or July 2

Note: Since this is not a trip/event planned by SD only one that we are participating in, we can not offer our usual premier membership rebate of $25. However the SD rebate applies to all other SD trips.

Included:

Airport Transfers
7 nights and 8 days
Beachfront Air Conditioned Accommodations
3 meals daily (yep meals are included!)
3 boat dives daily
Unlimited Shore Dives
Welcome Cocktail Party sponsored by SingleDivers.com and Fantasy Island Beach Resort
DAILY Organized Events and Games!
LOTS of Prizes....
Pirates and Wenches Costume Party
SD T-shirt and more...

Not Included:

Nitrox weekly plan $100
16% tax on all prices quoted including the trip, nitrox, single room upgrade etc.


Roatan offers world class diving and our last trip to Roatan was extremely memorable...it even inspired our SD song!

So don't delay...start planning your Labor Day for Fun in the Sun cuz look out Roatan...here we come!!!

AND...Fantasy Island is so excited to have us join them in their event that they are announcing us as their official partner in the June/July issue of Sport Diver Magazine! Stay tuned and we'll post it as soon as it is published! And more industry publicity will be coming out on this event so it will fill up fast...so don't delay if you want a spot on this great trip!

7:11 PM - 6/23/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Sun: A Short but Mostly Sweet Day

Sunday there were only four other divers on the King Neptune so we would only do two dives. Fine with me... I am way behind on my editing and there is someone across the continent I wanted to spend a lot of time with on-line last night!

Several divers had canceled on this trip including a nice couple of real divers from Phoenix. The husband woke up with a bad earache and some blood in his ear. They are going to Fiji in a few weeks so they didn't want to risk seriously injuring the ear. Spearo Chris was the only one from his group on the boat today. The rest had left for home. Chris was talking about "all his experience" to the other divers, yet I knew he only had 30 some dives under his belt. He wanted to dive solo, but from what I saw of his diving, he had insufficient experience to be diving solo. In addition he had come back from every dive the previous days with near 0 psi in his tank. I view him as a candidate for the Darwin Awards this year.

The new divers included Andrew, a diver from Russia who was new to California (nice guy) and two cave divers from North Carolina. He gad 300+ dives, mostly in Russia, the Red Sea and Thailand but had never dived temperate salt water. When the two cave divers started talking about diving North Carolina wrecks, I said I had a friend from Texas who dove there and one knew her. Small world (but not small enough to get me to the other side of the continent easily and inexpensively). There was such a contrast between Chris who was way overly confident in his abilities and chose to dive solo, and the other three divers who all had far more training and experience yet chose to do two guided dives because they were in new waters. Tremendous respect for those three, and concerns abouty a possible Darwin Award this year for Chris if he continues solo and completely empties his tank each dive.

On my first dive (Italian Gardens) the water was cold and murky below 25' due to an upwelling and plankton bloom. I didn't go deeper than 46' and spent most of my time just above the thermocline. I ran into an unidentified sea cucumber I'd only seen twice before and both times in that area of the island. I picked it up to reposition it for a better shot and it started spewing its guts out (eviscerating is the scientific term). I was stunned. It did it two more times while I filmed it. WOW! I ended up seeing four more and each of them eviscerated when I touched them. I've never had a local sea cucumber do that. It will make for some great footage although I hated stressing the animals. At least I won't need to do it again.

Second dive was Torqua Springs, site of the old freshwater well that used to supply Avalon with water in the winter. I don't particularly like the site as it is very silty and water motion (which we had today) resuspends it, reducing visibility and making filming difficult. Chris shot four more fish. The first one, a sheephead, I thought was too small. I mentioned it to Capt. Tony and he said he had measured and it was 1/10th of an inch into the legal. No way Chris could judge length that well given his lack of experience. Chris also got a rubberlip seaperch. When he cut it open, he started yelling "It has babies inside." I checked it out and I'm pretty sure he cut the stomach open and the smaller fish were shiner surfperch it had eaten recently! Some "perch" do bear live young so I'm not 100% sure. I should have videotaped them.

So that's the story of my dive day. I liked getting in early as it gave me time to edit AND talk with my friend on the East Coast! Besides, conditions are lousy due to the upwelling and plankton bloom so I didn't expect to get much footage. What I did get was well worth the trip... as was the beautiful sunshine and being out on the sea with the island I love close by.

The boat was going out today and tomorrow so I left my gear on board in case I decide to go (woke up at 5:30 this AM and decided to get caught up on my editing). My first dive today was my 1,400th logged dive since June 30, 2000 when I was fired (illegally) from my job as Vice President of the Catalina Conservancy. I never logged dives the previous 39 years because I didn't need a log here on the island. I didn't start logging until I decided I would do dive travel. So I'm averaging about 235 dives a year.

8:59 AM - 6/19/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Sat: "I'm Going to Kill Something Today" Grrr!

I rarely get "mad," but today was a test. I passed it. We had about 15 divers on board the King Neptunetoday. While I was helping in the shop prior to departure, FOUR of the divers bought their very first spears or spear guns, intending to take fish during the dives. One said to his family, "I'm going to kill something today." Saturday was already starting off badly from my perspective. I dive with spearos and have no problem with my buddies that do. I know their skill level and judgment. They take only what is legal and only what they will eat. These are not barbarians willing to kill anything in sight!

Our first dive was at Italian Gardens. Captain Tony has been taking us to a different part of this site from where we went last year, and where I saw up to 13 giant sea bass at a time. This new spot is supposed to be better, but I'm not impressed... yet. I'll give it time, it's still a little early in the sea bass courting season.

Dropped down to about 90 and worked my way up. As I approached the 30' depth, a male GSB appeared out of the kelp, checked me out and swam to the north. I headed south and swam for 15 min without another sighting, so I turned around. Just past the spot I had seen the male, I encountered a courting pair of them. They were a bit skittish and I'm pretty sure I noted a fresh spear wound on the female's gill cover with blood on it. The gill cover is pretty hard so it was a superficial wound. These fish are totally protected. I couldn't help thinking the new spearos might have tried to take it. No proof. but it did look mighty fresh and there were no other boats in the area. If I knew it was done by one of the new spearos on board, I'd have no problem breaking their spears or spearguns. Grrr.

I got back after a 70 min dive. Hooked up my tank to refill it and was doffing my gear when one of the new spearops arrived at the swim step. I couldn't believe what I saw! He had a 6" sheephead on the end of his spear... a GD guppy! Legal size is twice that. When I mentioned to him the fish was illegal size, he answered... I didn't know what it was. I had pointed out sheephead and kelp bass (the two best tasting and most common local fish) in a book before he went in. He was not the guy who said "I'm going to kill something today," but his approach was almost as reprehensible in my view. You only shoot what you can ID and know the legal size and limits on in my book (and my dive buddies that spear).

The other group of spearos came back with several illegal fish as well. "We didn't know what they were." I responded... "if you don't KNOW what they are, and what the legal size is, don't shoot them!" Later I heard the group talking about one guy missing the same fish 5 times and then when he hit it how all the other fish swarmed around them and "attacked" (yeah, right... revenging their fallen buddy). They were also talking about the color of the blood spurting out of the wound. I stayed very clear of these morons except when I wanted to film them for the weekend's highlights on my local cable TV show.

Next dive was at Isthmus Reef. I dropped down to 100' to film sea pens and anything else I could find on the deep sandy bottom, then slowly worked my way up the reef to the shallow center deep within the kelp. Several bat rays "buzzed" me (not really, they freaked when they realized I was there and took off). A good long dive for a total of 80 min.

Last dive was at Goat Harbor. I covered a lot of ground dropping to over 100' to film an angel shark, then slowly worked my way up the graduaaly sloping sandy bottom to about 30'. I was going through the deep kelp forest when I saw one of the spearos nearby and approaching me through a hole in the kelp. I made sure he saw me, then spent a little time filming his antics. Later I ran into the other group of spearos and filmed them, too.

I did encounter a courting pair of GSB but they took off as soon as they saw me. I assume the other divers must have harassed them. I also found lots of other mating activity. Ran into several mating circles (orgies) of black sea hares (the largest snail in the world at up to 3' long). They may go "at it" for several days and produce large masses of eggs that look like day old spaghetti. Also came across a large (12" x 18") mass of whelk eggs (probably the gem murex) with nearly a dozen of the snails mating and laying eggs.

Did a 75 min dive and surfaced. Once more the spearos came to the boat with fish they had no clue of the ID or the legal size. We had to throw 4 of them back. I turned to the guy (in his 20's) who took three trash fish (opaleye) and undersized kelp bass and sheephead, and told him once more that if he didn't know what he was shooting at, not to shoot them. The first group will be on the boat tomorrow, the second group won't. Thank goodness half the idiots will be gone. These killers give spear fishing a bad name.

8:37 AM - 6/19/2006 - comments {5} - post comment

Fri: Hen Rock, Goat Harbor and Blue Car Wreck

What an unexpectedly fantastic day of diving last Friday. I did three dives on the dive boat (Scuba Luv's King Neptune). Since I can't keep up with my blogging on my dives, I'll just give a brief summary for each of the days this past weekend.

First stop was Hen Rock near Long Point, usually our third site because it was shallow. I was disappointed because it meant we wouldn't be hitting any of the more north-western (and deeper) sites that day, but it turned out to be a great dive. Ever since I started diving over the sandy bottom and ignoring the reef and kelp forests, I've had great dives here with many "new" species to film.

For 50 minutes of this 70 min dive I sat within about 10-15 ft of where I dropped down (at 45') and watched three male orange-throat pikeblennies displaying to attract females. I think I got two of them as the female responded and slid into his worm tube (how cozy). Awesome. In addition to courtship and mating, the males would occasionally reach their bodies out of their worm tubes to snag an invertebrate to munch on. Also filmed a few sea pens and an English sole. As I sat on the bottom filming the male orange-throat pikeblennies, I could hear a number of dolphin "talking" to one another in the distance. Quite cool! I don't remember ever hearing them before.

Second dive was Goat Harbor. I dropped down to 100' to find angel sharks or torpedo rays with no luck. Spent a fair bit of time in the shallows (15-20') to release nitrogen, but on my way back to the boat I saw two small (250#) giant sea bass courting and dropped down to 25' to film them. They were very cooperative and I stayed with them for an additional 20 min.

Third dive was Blue Car Wreck. I only had 12 min of tape left but was too lazy to break open my housing and change to a new tape. I dropped down to 151' (in honor of the rum!) and slowly worked my way up. I had done my deepest dive (181') at this site during the winter... it has a steep drop off. Found a beautiful huge (7-9") yellow-orange dorid nudibranch (Anisodoris nobilis). Worked my way slowly into the shallows. Found several bat stars at 125' with their stomachs everted or the symbiotic worms that live in their arm grooves. Filmed them.

Up about 20-25' I was looking at a garibaldi nest full of 1-2 week old eggs when I noticed something strange wedged under a rock. I slowly removed the rocks around it after shooting a few short sequences. It was what I suspected... a slate pencil sea urchin (Eucidaris). I've filmed this species in Mexico, but don't remember seeing them off Catalina. I shot the rest of the tape of the urchin after placing it in the open to get better views (replaced it in its hole and put rocks back around it afterwards). When I got back up to the boat, I looked in the field guide and their northernmost range is Catalina! Very cool.

8:36 AM - 6/19/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Italian Gardens

Capt. Tony took us to a different part of Italian Gardens on the last dive. A number of giant sea bass had been seen her a few days earlier. I didn't see a one on this dive, but I already had enough footage to create my new giant sea bass DVD which was released at the end of last month. I did run into a number of morays in the boulder reef at this site, including several which had large retinues of red rock cleaner shrimp in the holes with them.

The only other sighting of real interest was the two species of brittlestars I observed when I carefully turned over some of the rocks (and replaced them in position after filming).

12:18 PM - 6/8/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Yellowtail Reef

I think our next dive was at Yellowtail Reef near the Empire Landing Quarry. I thought we were over about 50' of water when I dropped down. I could see absolutely nothing on the descend... at least not until my camera housing hit the sandy bottom at 32 ft! For some strange reason I had the camera rolling so I captured the impact on tape... the impact stopped the recording but otherwise did no damage so I continued. Vis was 6-12" at that point, but I had my bearings so I headed out to deeper water where it did clear up a bit. Filmed a sea hare high up in an elk kelp... never seen that before!

I moved in towards the shallows and the vis closed in again to less than a foot. I was going forward blindly, relying on my sense of direction since I couldn't see my compass. Strange, the day before the LDS told me the visibility here had been stellar. Then.... BAM! Something hit me and I realized why the vis was so bad. There were dozens of bat rays feeding here, pounding the sandy bottom for worms and clams and really stirring things up worse than a class of buoyancy-challenged dive students! BAM... another one.

As I rose above the cloud at the bottom, I could make out a few of the bat rays feeding thanks to the fact they hold their tails high in the air... er, water... when they feed. A few of them sensed my presence and took off. It was obvious I'd get little on film near the bottom so I ascended up into the kelp canopy. Here I found large schools of tiny fish that I could barely see on the recorded tape. No idea what they were, but it was cool.

12:11 PM - 6/8/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Goat Harbor

Not sure I have last Sunday's dives in the proper order, but I'll start with Goat Harbor a bit past Long Point on the way from Avalon to Two Harbors on Catalina. As I usually do, I dropped down to about 100 ft and slowly worked my way back up into the shallows. I saw a nudibranch (Acanthodoris rhodoceras) that I only remember seeing once before (near this site). In this case I saw two and they were mating ventral surface to ventral surface. Sex in sea slugs is not really all that excviting... after all, it does proceed at a snail's pace!

I did run into a mass of California sea hare (Aplysia californica) eggs looking like a pile of day old spaghetti. In the shallows I saw a large mass of eggs from a group of unidentified whelks who were mating as I filmed... again, at a snail's pace. Then a giant sea bass swam by overhead, on his way to meet the rest of his spawning aggregation at Italian Gardens no doubt. And there was a garibaldi male who had created his red algal nest in the saddle of a small rock formation. As I filmed he engaged in "dipping" behavior to attract a nearby female into the nest. She wasn't buying it, probably due to the strange shape of his nest. Wow... almost everything else underwater is breeding except me!

Towards the end of my dive I  found a small horn shark (14" or so in length). It allowed me to gently pick it up with little struggle, and I turned it over and rubbed its belly to calm it down. I was able to film the mouth with its small teeth for use in future DVD's and TV shows.

12:01 PM - 6/8/2006 - comments {0} - post comment

Missy and Me and... Dive #2 The Sue-Jack

After a reasonable surface interval we grouped once more for our second dive at the park. Conditions weren't fantastic... in fact there was quite a bit of surge and the vis wasn't stellar either. However, we went out past the outer edge of the kelp forest and dropped down into about 70 ft of water heading towards the south end of the park. That is a sure way to hit the wreck of the Sue-Jack. I previously always spelled it Sujac until I recently read the obituary of the owner of the vessel, which went down in the early 1980's while I was in Chicago for an extended stay. The wreck rests between about 60 and 90 ft, so moving along at 70 ft puts you smack dab into it if the visibility is really poor. Ouch!

The divers wanted to drop down below 100' past the wreck so we did. We then did a multi-level ascent profile until Missy and I ended up returning at about 35 ft. Missy picked up several empty beer cans (not hers) as we returned. Unfortunately she lost sight of ne when I dropped down to film something. When I returned, she was nowhere to be seen so I reconnoitered the area for a minute, and found the empty beer cans scattered on the sand and gravel bottom. I did a safety stop and surfaced to see her heading up the dive park stairs so she was fine... had just run her air down to 750 psi and didn't want to land on the steps in the surge with the beer cans. Someone might wonder!

We called it after that dive due to the poor conditions. I drove the "Dr. Bill Mobile" back to my house, got a nice hot shower and joined them at Antonio's before they caught their boat back to the mainland. All in all, a good day with good company and a good dive buddy.

11:53 AM - 6/8/2006 - comments {0} - post comment