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 - post comment