Dive Dry with Dr. Bill
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Missy and Me and... Dive #1 The Valiant
Missy and I finally had a chance to be dive buddies last weekend. She brought her husband Doug, her son and a group of divers from her dive club at Camp Pendleton to the Casino Dive Park. They still wanted to dive the wreck of the Valiant in nearby Descanso Bay. Since diving there involves a permit from the Harbor Dept (something they don't normally issue on weekends this time of year), I had to call them up. Fortunately they were willing to issue a permit... and even bring it to me at the dive park in one of the harbor patrol boats. Such incredible service... thank you!
We did our surface swim to the second outer buoy in Descanso. I arrived first (despite being twice as old as most of the other divers!) with Missy following closely behind. Once everyone had gathered at the buoy, I said we'd swim about 1/3rd of the distance to the next one and drop down heading at 150 degrees. We ended up right on the wreck and had a good dive there with a maximum depth of 100 ft. I really wanted to head back at depth over the sandy bottom to look for shovelnose guitarfish, and we did... but didn't see much on our way in.
A large sheephead led us back into the park where beginning OW dive classes were stirring up the sediment. A satisfying dive all told. Thanks Missy. 11:46 AM - 6/8/2006 - comments {0} - post commentHen Rock Memorial Day
The final dive on Memorial Day was at Hen Rock. I had been surprised when I boarded the King Neptune this morning by finding a fellow teacher who taught with me 30 years ago on board. I never expected Margaret to be a diver, but when she married her current husband Jan, she took it up to join him (good girl). We dropped down together here and she immediately found a giant kelp "plant" attached to a group of empty wavy top snail shells! Because it hadn't attached to the more stable rocks, it became a candidate for the 2006 Darwin Awards! The current was ripping here. I was blown sideways several times. Margaret and Jan went into the shelter of the rocky reef and kelkp forest while I stayed out over the exposed sandy bottom. While there I noticed a large sheep crab (see columns 034 and 103) quickly heading my way across the sand so I filmed him. When he arrived by my camera, I think he was shocked to find out I wasn't a large boulder. He quickly took off with me in pursuit, camera running. Each time I got close, the crab turned into the Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay for you older divers like me) of the underwater world and started boxing at my camera. Next dive... buddying up with lovely MissyP ("Pretty in Pink") at our dive park in the morning! 6:25 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentEmpire Landing Quarry Memorial Day
Second dive at Empire Landing on Memorial Day involved several more angel sharks over the deeper sandy bottom. Once in the shallows I started carefully overturning larger rocks to see and film what was underneath them. Found two chestnut cowries that quickly started crawling for the dark side of the rock to avoid the bright sunlight. Many animals will do this when suddenly exposed to sunlight. It is a defense mechanism that increases their chances of finding shelter before they are eaten. Of course I protected these two from any hungry sheephead that swam too close. A brittle star quickly scrambled across the exposed surface of the rock and sought shelter beneath it... another example of light avoidance. The only other thing worth noting was a very large debris field (tens of yards across) consisting of the tubes of Chaetopterus and other tube worms that had been dug up by a feeding frenzy of bat rays that had diminished visibility on some areas of this site. 6:24 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentItalian Gardens Memorial Day
On Memorial Day itself we started out at Italian Gardens again. I did have one lonely giant sea bass swim by me overhead, but that was it. Of course I was working today, but I did take time to remember all our vets... and those who are currently serving. The only real sign of mating was a California cone snail that was laying its eggs on the huge blade of a deep water Laminaria. Now I know what those parralel strings of small white disks are from! At depth one of the elk kelp (Pelagophycus) blades had wrapped around itself so it looked like an ice cream cone. Imagine how much sunlight that prevented the alga's blades from receiving. Strong current and not much to see so I called this dive early. 6:23 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentTorqua Springs May 28th
The third dive on the 28th was at Torqua Springs. I dropped deep (well, only to 80 ft) and worked my way up to the rocky reef. I filmed some of the deep water kelps as I ascended, and found an unusual colonial tunicate (Botrylloides) all by itself. Then I saw two Danforth anchors resting on top of one another at 73 feet. It looked like they were placed that way... and I filmed them because it almost looked like they were mating (even the anchors are getting some)! When I got up to the shallower reef, I cruised for a while. Saw a Navanax display an avoidance reaction as its head region touched something sharp or well defended. There were two lobster starting tro come out of their crevices, and one fought the other as it tried to return to the hiding place after seeing me. Perhaps the most interesting thing was a pair of Navanaxes involved in "tailing " or "tailgating" behavior. The rear one follows the slime trail of the one in front until it catches up to it and makes contact. They then begin to move forward almost together (head-to-tail). At one time this was thought to be a prelude to mating (another species "getting some"), but scientists are unsure of that now. 6:23 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentSea Fan Grotto May 28th
We returned to Sea Fan Grotto for our second dive on the 28th. I didn't get to the caves until very late in the dive so they were very silty. Besides, I've taken enough footage of that area in the past (as beautiful as it is when lit). I found a pair of green abalone. I gently placed my finger in between the shell and the rock and filmed it with my other hand as oits strong muscular foot torqued the shell first one way, then the other to get rid of me and clamp down. Of course I was careful not to hurt the abalone since they can bleed to death if injured. Have been noticing a large number of sea cucumbers with very bad skin conditions. Many of them look diseased. Several of us have been comparing notes over the Internet to try to figure out what is causing this. Warm water increases the chances of diseases breaking out in echinoderms, so it is possible that could be the problem. However, I'm seeing them at deeper depths where the water is still in the lower to mid 50's F. 6:22 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentBird Rock May 28th
Our first dive on the 28th was at Bird Rock. There were several dive boats at Ship Rock, where I hoped we would do our first dive, so Capt. Tony took us here instead. I was not disappointed. I had an unknown buddy (Norman) join me, something which always affects my videotaping... either because I have to divert attention to focus on the safety of my buddy, or because they get in the way of my shots or kick up silt or sand. Norman was pretty good on the latter counts. As we dropped to the base of the rock itself (80 ft), I noticed a small tail partially extending out from under some deep water kelp (probably Laminaria). I went over, pushed back the kelp and discovered a small ( < 2 ft) swell shark. I carefully lifted it and placed it out on the open sand where we both could film it. It looked almost like a little puppy and made no attempt to escape. Cute. We saw other garibaldi nests with fresh eggs in them, male rock scallops (they have the bright orange lips instead of the grey or greenish ones of the female), an orange scallop sponge on the upper shell of one, and two fragile rainbow starfish. Not a bad dive. 6:21 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentGaribaldi Reef? or Blue Car Wreck? May 27th
For our third dive on the 27th I'm not really sure if we were at Garibaldi Reef or Blue Car Wreck. I had written down BCW but I think one of the other divers said GR. Of course the two are right next to one another, but I didn't see any golf balls down at depth like I should have if we were at BCW. I plunged down beyond 100 ft (as I did on all three dives this day) and was not disappointed! There on the sandy bottom were many bat stars. I turned several over and found a number of them that had the commensal worms living on their underside and in the arm grooves. I was able to get some fairly good footage of them so I was pleased. I was also able to film two of the bat stars in the process of feeding so their stomachs were extruded outside their mouth. I saw another California cone snail laying its eggs on a deep water kelp. I was glad to get additional footage of this process. However the much lighter color of the snail's shell on the dark kelp blade meant the footage was not optimally exposed. Speaking of mating and eggs (no, no luck here... yet), I saw more garibaldi nests (see columns 001 and 096) with fresh eggs in them as well as Kellet whelks laying the white pumpkin seed-like eggs on anything hard. I found several horn shark eggs buried in rocky crevices. A pair of sheephead were mouth fighting over territory within a school of blacksmith, but broke it off as I approached. Near my maximum depth I noticed a traffic cone with a bat star and a number of Kellet whelk eggs on it. There were also some beautiful light purple snail eggs on the cone that I couldn't identify. Even the blacksmith appeared to be in breeding "plumage." The two dark bands that extend from their eyes across the head were present. When will my turn come? 6:21 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentHen Rock May 27th
Hen Rock was our second dive on the 27th. After getting a bit "bored" with the rocky reef and kelp forest here, probably largely because it is usually our third dive of the day and during the winter it was often too dark to film in their by that time of day. Now the sun is up much longer, but I still have been frequenting the sandy bottom between the inner and outer reefs here. It was a good thing I did. I saw what was only the second pipefish I remember in Catalina waters... and it was a good sized one (16-18") which made it easy to film. I followed it for about 40 min, and took about 30 min of footage... including feeding behavior as it hunted along the bottom. The only other good subject I saw was an English sole (flatfish) swimming along the bottom. Because its body is rotated 90 degrees, its dorsal fin lies flat on the bottom. Instead, it uses its pectoral fin to stabilize itself, holding it perpendicular to the body as it swims along. 6:13 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentEmpire Landing Quarry May 27th
Ocean conditions weren't real cooperative during the Memorial Day weekend. We never got past Bird Rock. In addition to the rough water, there were tons of private and commercial boats, including mainland dive boats, that prevented us from getting into some of the better dive sites. Found another angel shark at the Empire Landing ("West End") Quarry in deeper water on the first dive on the 27th. It is now getting to be very routine to find these sluggish but interesting sharks. Years ago they were decimated by over-fishing. I don't know if their return indicates a recovery, or if it just reflects the massive squid runs (see columns 173 and 174) we had this winter and spring (they eat the dying squid). Did see a green abalone, another semi-rarity after sport and commercial harvest followed by withering disease decimated all our local species except the deep water whites (which were already rare). A sheep crab fled from my camera. An unusual find and film subject was a juvenile kelp or calico bass (about 4" long) with a long strand of what appeared to be surf grass (Phyllospadix) in its mouth. I think it had bitten off more than it could chew. It swam around with the stalk projecting many inches out of the mouth like a huge green toothpick. Eventually it caughed it up. 6:12 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentHen Rock May 21st
Hen Rock was the third dive on May 21st. I did see a giant sea bass (see columns 004 and 154) quickly swim past, probably in transit from Italian Gardens to some other gathering site. I went to the outer reef at 55-75 ft and saw one of my first garibaldi nests with fresh yellow eggs (see columns 001 and 096). The garibaldi weed out other algae, leaving only a bright red algal patch in which the females lay their yellow eggs. As the eggs maturem they turn gray in color. I also found a small moray eel in a crevice as well as a red rock cleaner shrimp in a hole by itself. Usually the two are found together, but the shrimp will clean other species including garibaldi and blacksmith. Since it was getting late, a male sheephead was seen resting vertically in a protected crevice on the reef. 6:12 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentPraya at Twin Rocks May 21st
Our second dive site on May 21st was at Twin Rocks. This turned into a very interesting dive. I dropped down to 80-90 feet and in the distance saw what appeared to be the "frayed rope" siphonophore Apolemia. I kicked over to it and filmed the entire length (25-30 ft) of its trailing feeding and reproductive ("munching and mating") polyps. As I approached the top, I suddenly saw that it had a swimming bell attached to this relative of the Portuguese man-of-war. I also noticed it had a pretty good sting when my dive buddy Derek kicked the trailing strand towar me and it wrapped around my neck and face! I posted the pictures of the swimming bell on the Internet and soon learned it was not Apolemia, but a member of the genus Praya. Finally I had seen an entire specimen of this interesting group of Cnidarians. Bat rays (see columns 010, 099 and 191) were feeding in the shallows. I noticed a lot of debris consisting of Chaetopterus worm tubes, one of their favorite menu items, and later found a number of wavy top snail shells that had been crushed... perhaps by a bat ray, or possibly a very hungry sheephead. Reproduction was in the air... er, I mean sea... here as well. I saw the ostrich plume hydroid Aglaophenia with its reproductive bodies, and Kellet whelks laying their masses of eggs that look like pumpkin seeds attached to the rocks. Truly a dive filled with munching and mating in (and out of) the Macrocystis! 6:11 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentItalian Gardens May 21st
The following day (May 21) we returned to Italian Gardens to see if we could film the giant sea bass. We did spot one, but it didn't remain within filming distance very long. Other species than the sea bass were involved in mating here. There were hundreds of recently recruited white urchins (Lytechinus) dotting the algae here. Some were on the gravel bottom, and had used their tube feet to cover their upper surfaces with small pebbles for camouflage. There was a mating orgy of four California sea hares going at it... they will sometimes mate for days (oh, how I wish I had their stamina!). Fresh eggs, looking like a pile of Mamma Mia's day old spaghetti were in the background. Once again the current was strong and made it difficult to progress and find other bass. 6:11 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentYellowtail Reef May 20th
Yellowtail Point and Reef was the site of the third dive on May 20th. We didn't tell our divers, but a great white shark (see columns 041, 121, 122 and 123) had snagged a sea lion just off the beach nearby about a week or two earlier. There is one that seems to be resident in this region, but I figured it probably wasn't too hungry after munching down on a marine mammal. Reproduction was obvious from the Kellet whelk eggs I filmed here. The kelp forest was pretty dark. However small holes in the kelp canopy allowed small, bright bursts of sunlight to reach algae growing on the bottom. I was able to video this effect... although entirely by accident! I had mistakenly left my camera on and it recorded the sunbursts as I swam along unaware. Looks like my camera doesn't even need me to create decent footage. I did film a nice hermit crab crawling up the side of a boulder on the reef here. It must have been a mountain climber in another lifetime. We also saw the remnants of a tunicate, Leucothera pulchra, drifting in the water just outside the reef. 6:10 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentSea Fan Grotto May 20th
The next dive on May 20th was at Sea Fan Grotto. Derek again accompanied me. Down at 70-80 feet I saw an angel shark half buried in the sand, so we filmed it for a while until it swam off. In the shallows we saw a bright blue cobalt sponge, eggs from an unidentified whelk snail, a giant keyhole limpet and a few other things on the boulder bottom before heading up to the shallow caves (or grottos) where the sea fans or gorgonians are. As always the gorgonians are beautiful. However, you have to get here early since divers arriving before you invariably kick up plenty of silt and ruin the effect. Unfortunately on today's dive at the grottos it was obvious that some divers were kicking up much more than silt. I filmed at least a dozen sea fans that had been knocked off the wall by a diver's fin, head or other body part making rough contact. If that kind of thing keeps up, this site will lose the beauty that attracts divers to it. At the opening to the cave I noted that the black croakers are present again. I only see them at a few dive sites around the island and this is one of them. I also filmed a few of the pholid clams, clams which bore right into rock with their shells and only have their feeding siphons extended above the rock's surface. 6:09 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentItalian Garden May 20th
I'm trying to reconstruct my dives following the last report I did on La Jolla Shores and Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach. I've waited so long to write these new blogs that I can barely remember the dives. Thank goodness for the video footage and extracted stills. On May 20th we dove Italian Gardens for the first time this season since the giant sea bass (see my columns 004 and 154) are starting to return for their mating season. Derek Frost of Aqua Odysseas wanted to join me to film the bass. He and his crew have been filming on the island for 2-3 months to create a DVD travelogue featuring Catalina topside and underwater. Got to hand it to him... he didn't come out here for just a day or a week and expect to get really good footage. I dropped down and noticed I was falling right in front of a giant sea bass so I started my camera while I was well above it. As I landed on the gravel, Derek landed on me... he was busy filming the bass with his Sony FX-1 HD camera in a nice Gates housing. Looking through the viewfinder, he wasn't aware I was right below him! The bass took off slowly and that was the only time we saw one on this dive. The visibility was poor and the current was stronger than expected. 6:08 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentMy Buddy... Finally
After something like 15 months, MissyP and I are finally going to see if we are compatible... as dive buddies that is. She is coming over in the morning with her dive club from the Camp Pendeleton Marine base to dive our Casino Point Dive Park. Why, I'm even going to skip diving on the King Neptune in order to buddy up with her. We'd like to do the wreck of the Valiant in the next cove (Descanso), but the City of Avalon Harbor Master's office has said issuing a permit to dive there on a Saturday is highly unlikely. That is probably especially true since the weather forecast this weekend is for an incredible heat wave.
I'm sure Missy and I will have a good set of dives tomorrow. And I'm sure both she and I will write our respective blogs about it... kind of a "He Said... She Said" situyation. Well, don't believe a word she writes... I didn't do it! 4:49 PM - 6/2/2006 - comments {0} - post commentToo Busy to Blog... Again
I'm quickly falling behind in my blogging. A number (6) of interesting dives last weekend to reprt on with more planned this busy weekend on the King Neptune (we have waiting list only for the Sat and Sun trips).
I haven't had time to blog recently because I finally got the urge to revisit my Giant Sea Bass DVD that has been languishing unfinished in my video editing computer for the past 3-4 months. I needed distance from it before I tackled the always difficult task of trimming down the footage to a final product in the 40-42 min range. It's like dealing with any "artistic" creation... it's always hard to discard footage you've taken and deemed worthy of inclusion in prior versions of the project. However the past few days I've been pretty successful at being "objective." Expect the final product to be ready by this Friday, or Tuesday at the latest (since I'm diving Sat-Mon).
Visit my website to see the description of this, my sixth DVD! I promise to catch up on my blogging next week. And if you believe that, I'll be happy to sell you the Banning Brothers' Walking Bridge from San Pedro to Catalina Island. Years ago the owner of a restaurant I did the books for put a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge in the window of the eatery with that captain. People believed him, and when the Museum told them it never existed, they insisted it did because they had seen a picture of it in the window! Of course this is no surprise... these same people elected the current US administration.
10:08 AM - 5/25/2006 - comments {2} - post commentThe 37-Year Drought is Broken... Finally
I'm referring to finally making my first dives on the North American mainland since 1969, 37 years ago! I decided I was long overdue to break this drought and had wanted to dive the San Diego region for several years. #1 dive buddy Andrea and I drove down to La Jolla Shores to join the monthly Wrinkles' dive there organized by ScubaBoard and SoCal members of that site. We were not disappointed (well, in some ways... read on). 11:11 AM - 5/16/2006 - comments {3} - post commentTwin Rocks and the first GSB's of the season
Conditions had deteriorated a bit by the time we got to our third dive site Sunday, Twin Rocks. I didn't expect much when I dropped down to 37 feet. I was mistaken. Within a few minutes I was approached by a giant or black sea bass (see columns 004 and 154). I shot a quick few seconds of my first giant sea bass sighting of the season. Moments later another bass swam above me. I wasn't entirely sure it was the same bass or a different one, but I'm counting it as a second sighting. Looks like it is time to start diving their courting aggregation site nearby, Italian Gardens!
I also filmed a series of egg clusters from an unidentified whelk. The only other sighting of note was a colorful winged pearl oyster growing on the base of a gorgonian. These bivalves are much more common in Mexican waters, but may have dispersed here naturally during El Nino events and seem to be doing fairly well although I don't see any young ones so perhaps they are not reproducing in our colder waters.
11:50 AM - 5/8/2006 - comments {1} - post comment
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Description The humorous and fascinating exploits of a marine biologist and underwater videographer in the "other 70%" of the globe. At least that's my story. Home User Profile Archives Friends Scuba Girl Scuba Careers Scuba Diving Courses Scuba Diving Ebook Mesothelioma Solicitors Recent Entries - Shark Dive off Catalina - Ah Baloney - A Heck of a Great Day! - Get Them While They're Hot... Six DVD's for $100 US - Practice and Timing |
