First dive site was Yellowtail Point near the Empire Landing Quarry. Bat rays in fair numbers were feeding. I suggested to my friends Mina and Mark that we dive to the 100' level to see if we could get better visibility. By the time we reached 60 ft (after winding our way out of the kelp forest), it was obvious that vis was not good there either so we returned to the kelp forest and reef.

The only footage I got that was worth while was of two knobby sea stars (Pisaster giganteus) feeding on snails. One had a single wavy top snail in its arms with the tube feet holding it above the oral opening. The other was more interesting. It had encompassed a group of 6 or 7 Kellet whelks that were mating. In addition it had several wavy stop snails attached to its tube foot. Because of the particulates in the water, I had to gently lift up this specimen and carry it over to a clearer spot to film it. Only lost one empty wave top snail in the process. This starfish was really prepared for a buffet meal!

Second dive site was Isthmus Reef at Two Harbors on Catalina. We don't dive this site very often so I always look forward to it. There is a central shallow (20-40 ft) rocky reef in the center with lots of kelp growing on it, but several decent sized openings. On all four sides of the reef the water drops off into 100+ ft. Mina and Mark wanted to see the south wall, so we wound our way through the kelp to that part of the reef (passing below another dive boat from the mainland).

Visibility was not great at the wall, but we did spend some time exploring it. I found a shelled opisthobranch, Tylodina fungina, feeding on a small sulfur sponge. Unfortunately the video did not come out very well (I've never had any luck filming this feeding behavior due to the small size of the snail). Had a few nice sabellid worms (Myxicola) to film as well as red rock cleaner shrimp and a fragile rainbow sea star. Garibaldi males were defending their nests with fresh yellow eggs in them. I was also able to film a garibaldi pooping. I'm trying to learn how to ID some of the fish from their poop. After all, as I used to tell my high school marine biology students, "You are what you eat, minus what you excrete!"

Our third dive site was Torqua Springs, a reef somewhat similar to Yellowtail Point's. Visibility here was also dismal and the only footage I shot was of the silt covering the giant kelp blades, undoubtedly limiting their ability to photosynthesize.

So this was a dismal day for diving due to poor vis. However, there were a number of very fun folks on the King Neptune (including my friends Mina and Mark) and I was quite happy with the surface intervals! The other plus... only 13 min of footage from all three divves to edit! Can spend my evenings downtown having fun at El Galleon's karaoke bar (of course drinking club soda since I was diving the next day).