6/14/2009 - My Lion's Share - La Jolla Shores

Date: 06/14/2009

Time In: 8:54am / 10:48am

Dive Location: San Diego, California

Dive Site: La Jolla Shores

Viz: 5-10' in the shallows, 15-20'+ deeper

Water Temp: 57°f at 85fsw(SUUNTO)

Max Depth: 85' / 74'

Bottom time: 64 / 58 min.

Buddies: Rob C

I recently found that spending an entire weekend at the Scuba Show, dry, sans bubbles, while stellar dive conditions were just outside the door (no - not in Long Beach Harbor, a little further than that) can ACTUALLY be considered a form of torture. Bubble therapy was definately needed. With another bout of southwest swell, Laguna was out for my road to recovery. San Diego it is! I drove down to La Jolla and met Rob C. in the main parking lot. Prime parking was easy to find before 8am on Sunday morning (thanks June gloom!). We made plans to dive straight out from the main lifeguard tower. Tide was really really low on Sunday morning. The surf was frequent at 1-3', with the occasional overhead rogue wave. It took a little effort, but was definately worth it. Viz was not nearly as stirred up in the shallows as it was last time I was down here. We dropped into about 20' just short of the lifeguard buoy and found 10-15' viz.

As we worked our way west, we stopped for a few photo ops. The first thing I noticed were several decorator crabs hiding amongst the sand dollar fields. The first was a WELL decorated adult, but there were also many not-so-decorated crabs.

Upon closer look were several Three-lined Aeolids and we also came across several groups of Black Dorid's.

We stopped at the first wall at about 55'. Besides the normal residents (Blennies, Sarc. Fringeheads, Octo's) everywhere I looked I could see nudi eggs. I found a couple Cuthona Divae, more trilineatas and spanish shaw's. Rob also saw a tiny San Diego dorid before we decided to head further west.

As Rob was searching for one of the deeper walls, I stopped short, noticing a translucent blue/white bulbous object as I was examining the kelp. Could it be? YES! A Lion Nudibranch (Melibe leonina)! Another nudi first for me, compliments of La Jolla Shores! I snapped a couple stills and then got Rob's attention (I think it was one of those wooooo-hooooooo's through the reg). I filmed the nudi feeding a little (will post soon), and then signaled Rob to move in for some shots. A couple divers passed by. In my excitement I pointed my find out to them. I'm not sure if they knew what it was at first, as they didn't seem too impressed - or they might have just been wondering while I was so ecstatic about something not so uncommon at the shores.. (IT WAS A NUDI FIRST FOR ME!)

We worked our way in and ended the dive in 7fsw, giving us enough leeway to time the exit.

We quickly changed out our tanks, as Rob had to be at Birch by 1pm. We had less than an hour SI, so we knew were going to be limited on depth and bottom time. We started a bit north of where we had seen the Melibe. Heading back in the same general direction. Along the way, Rob came across what appeared to be a large white sea cucumber (not living?). We took a few pics for id, including a discoloration that could be seen inside the creature - not sure if it was the innerds or another organism.

Nearby I saw a couple Hermissenda. One was feeding on what first appeared to be the leg of a brittle star, but after looking at the pics I think it may have been a worm or sea cucumber. I'm not aware of hermi's eating anything other than the flora? It may have been that the other creature was just in close proximity to whatever the Hermissenda was working on.

We took a turn south, and eventually more southeast, noticing that we were quickly burning through our no-deco time. We startled a bat ray, which took flight in a cloud of muck, startling us in return. We enjoyed the swim back in, easily fulfilling a short obligation and a much longer safety stop, which seemed to pass very quicky as we casually searched through the many critter hiding spots the Shores possess. Again we surfaced in 7fsw, as the sun was starting to come out and the beach was starting to fill up. Can't wait to return - with more time, and nitrox!