12/1/2006 - A Night Of Discovery

Merry and I took a much needed break from our hectic week to search for one of the juvenile Giant Sea Bass that several divers have spotted in Redondo Canyon recently. We began our dive by walking into the ankle slapping surf in front of the Lifeguard tower about 50 yards south of the pier. As we were just about to begin our descent I felt a sudden tug on my leg. A fisherman with an apparant strong bicep cast his line and multiple hooks at us. He missed my drysuit but did snag my left fin. I had my HID light on so I know he saw us. I carefully removed the hooks as he was trying to reel me in.
We finally dropped down into Sarcastic Fringehead headquarters. Every shell and PVC pipe had a fish in it.

Red and Two-spot octopus were out and about, although one decided to nap in a comfortable bottle for the evening.

Shrimp, crabs and sculpin were found every few feet last night. I found a small patch of bryozoan with severl tiny shrimp laying eggs in it.

I had three exciting finds last night. Fugly, the snake eel from Marineland had his cousins move up to Redondo. They seem to like the place, as we've seen a couple of them now.

I found a worm that Leslie Harris identified as maldanid polychaete. There may be a different worm, isopod or nudibranch on top of it in the second picture.

We didn't find any juvie GSB in the canyon as had been reported so we made our way back toward the beach. As we approached fifteen feet where we planned a safety stop, there it was! Right in front of us. He was enjoying a feast of fry while hanging out in the sand dollar beds nearshore. Some nights we just get lucky.