9/18/2006 - Busy Weekend

One night last week Merry and I dived a hidden reef that I've wanted to dive for more than ten years. We found a lot of fish but not much else. Saturday was the International Beach Cleanup. We removed a lot of fishing lead from the Redondo Beach breakwall. Yesterday we planned to dive the sandy plains of Marineland and then head over to the Point for some pictures. Along the way I found a heavy weightbelt buried in the sand. We scuttled our dive plan and shot a liftbag instead. We then headed back to the beach with the weightbelt in tow. I decided it had been long enough since I had a "fun for Phil" dive, so I went back to Marineland after work today with a new plan. I was going to shoot worms and anything else that looked fascinating. There are thousands of Christmas Tree and Serpulid worms on the main reef. After wearing out my shutter I went to the anchor to try for a different angle. A female Sheephead posed for me for awhile. Of course, what's a Marineland dive without nudibranchs? There aren't a lot of nudis there this time of year, but the San Diego dorids mate in the late Fall. A few of them were getting a head start.

I also found a clam shell with some type of egg sacs on one half. I'll try to identify them later.