7/15/2007 - Great American Fish Count...er Rescue

Ross-O took Merry and me out to the Fog wreck and the F. S. Loop this morning. It was a bumpy ride, especially later in the day. We had clear blue water at the surface, but that quickly changed to a hazy ten feet of vis on the Fog wreck. After freeing the anchor we headed off in search of the Wolfeel. I usually find him inside a rusty box in front of the large wall but today there was a large Cabezon in the box. I turned to call Merry over to see the Cabezon but she was busy with one of her own. She found one caught in the net covering much of the wreck. She used EMT shears to cut away the net and the fish scampered off. A minute later we saw him chasing down a school of Blacksmith. He must have been caught for quite awhile. He was hungry!
 

I decided to circumnavigate the wreck and head back up. As I began to swim, Merry pointed her light at a pipe sticking out over the sand. There, peeking out through a rusted hole was Wolfie. We checked him out for a couple of minutes before heading to the anchor. We found some shells in the sand that Merry didn't have in her growing collection, so it was a great dive after all.

We motored to the wreck of the F. S. Loop off the Los Angeles breakwall. The surface was very choppy, the current was ripping and there were hundreds of boats around us preparing for the start of the TransPacific yacht race from Pt. Fermin to Honolulu. We were more intrested in the submarine races. This little Hudson's dorid was ahead of the Tritonia festiva by several lengths.

With vis of less than two feet and a strong current, we cut this dive short and called it a day. We stopped by Marineland on the way home to report our find for the Great American Fish Count, but Eric Frasco was already gone. Don Robarge was there to let us know about the poor conditions there today. Some day we may have decent dive conditions again. Maybe.