Wreckreational Diving

6/10/2007 - One Of The Best Dive Days Ever

Merry and I went with Jon Davies and Frank O'Donnell to the wrecks of the Avalon and the crane off Haggerty's this morning. There was a layer of smog between 23 feet and forty, but the vis opened up on the bow of the Avalon. Within a minute of bottom time Merry found a species of rockfish we'd never seen, a Calico rockfish, Sebastes dalli .
We eventually found four. Later Merry found a flatworm that Leslie Harris will have to identify. My pictures were so out of focus that it makes identification difficult. I spotted a lumpy crab, Paraxanthias taylori for the first time. Three new animals on the same dive! I was smiling through my regulator throughout the dive. We also found the usual assortment of ronquils on the wreck. During our ascent the Olive rockfish that were hanging out at the anchor line were still there.
We stopped by the Popeye Maru to say hello to Scott, Margaret and Jim before heading to the crane. Before the dive I told Jon and Frank that there was a resident Giant Seabass about four feet long. I dropped onto the crane and found the best visibility I've ever seen there. It was a good thirty feet. I looked around for the GSB but never found him. Jon and Frank headed out to the rocky reefs and the GSB found them.
I looked for the Moray eel I found on my last dive there and was elated to find two! They were biting each other and spinning as if they were attacking an octopus. I tried to shoot video but they would go back inside the crane by the time I changed settings. At one point the were in the open and I could see that they were five feet long plus. When they would spin the Blacksmiths would flee...so did I. :)
Merry kept a weather eye out for good conditions. :)