We weren't planning to dive today. We needed to perform routine maintenance on the boat, but we had nearly full tanks left over from our White Point dive yesterday. We heard from a little bird that there was good visibility early this morning at the Topaz pilings. I think that bird belongs in a cage. By the time we got there after 10:00 it was a sandstorm under water.
We still managed to find a few critters, but only Merry got decent photos.
I found a Cumanotus sp. nudibranch on a pink hydroid ans pointed it out to Merry. Later I found our second Catriona columbiana on a tube worm with another Cumanotus on top of it. Later in the dive I found a tiny flatfish walking on its fins. I've never seen that except on nature films from the tropics. Any help with identification would be greatly appreciated.
Crawling flatfish
Sanddab race
Barnacle and corynactis on a piling
Sarcastic fringehead
Juvenile horn shark
Small patch of squid egg sacs
One of four tall pilings
Short, broken piling in the canyon
Corymorpha nutans
After the dive we ran offshore to warm up the motor oil. Three miles out, we found six Pacific Bottlenose dolphins. They didn't play much, but hung around long enough for a few shots.
Kevin Lee joined Merry and me for a couple of dives on the south side of Palos Verdes this morning. The water was dirty in most spots, but it cleared between Marineland and White Point. I haven't dived the Radio Tower off Pt. Fermin for a few years so today looked like a good time to revisit the site.
Technically, the site should have a different name. The tower, laying on its side in 105 feet is too short to be a radio tower. It looks more like a RADAR tower or an oil derrick. We dropped together and headed down the line. Visibility was limited as we reached fifty feet. I spotted a salp chain and pointed it out to Merry and Kevin. They each took turns firing off a few shots. I turned around to look for our downline and it was gone in the gloom. We looked for a few seconds, then made a free ascent. At the surface we joked about what a dumb move that was, then dropped again. By the time we reached the tower the vis was a little better.
Metridiums, golden anemones, corynactis, scallops and large blacksmiths greeted us.
After returning to the surface we laughed about our stupidity, then headed for White Point. Kevin had only made one dive there and had really bad vis. He was in for a treat. Now he has two dives there in really bad vis. He said he's good for a few more years before diving there again.
Margaret Webb and Jim Lyle dived the Topaz Pilings this morning and reported that a sheep crab had become entangled in the line. We were planning to make a night dive there tonight, but decided to go over this afternoon and look for the crab. Fortunately it wasn't had to find. It was on the first piling we saw, so we cut it free and re-tied the line.
Visibility was down about five feet from Monday, so I didn't get many photos. There was a reported"hundreds of squid" there on Wednesday night, but we only found a couple small pockets of eggs and no squid. Maybe we'll get lucky on the next full moon and have a real squid run this year.
1/30/2012 - That's the way, uh-huh uh-huh I like it
Posted by Max Bottomtime
We thought about cancelling our dives with Kevin Lee after looking at milky water all day yesterday, but figured we might get more than the three or four feet vis we expected. We got much more. We dropped anchor on one of the Redondo Artificial reefs and Merry gave a big thumbs up from the bow. We could easily see fifteen feet down the line and there was no dirty layer in the water column this time.
As we hit the reef we spread out in search of photo subjects. I found another octopus nest and called Kevin over. Merry was on the rock pile looking at lobsters...everywhere.
After a short dive we discussed where to head next. We were getting bored of the barge, Avalon, crane, landing craft and Flat Rock, and I didn't feel like wasting gas to look for clean water on the south side. It was decided to hit the pilings off the Topaz jetty.
The line I tied last month was broken. I followed it and found that someone had pulled it tight and wrapped it around some kelp. I untwisted the line and wrapped it around a third piling, then headed back to the first one. The line was now too short, so I added twenty feet of cave line. I'll re-lay the line soon and add one or two more pilings. I'm hoping to have a loop between five pilings so divers can find the easily them from the beach.
As I was about to end my dive, Merry came over and took me to see a nudibranch she found. It turned out to be our first Catriona columbiana sighting! Kevin said he's found several, all at Vet's. What a brat!
I found something that I can't identify. Anyone have a clue what this is?
After a few days of large surf I was hoping the swell models were wrong about today. They were. We had one foot swells with Santana Wind-generated whitecaps in the morning, but by the afternoon we had glassy seas. We drove from Redondo Beach to Portuguese Bend looking for diveable water. We found milk. While heading back home we shot photos of the landmarks. It was a beautiful day, just not for diving.
Portuguese Point
Trail to Sacred Cove
Abalone Cove
Our float is still on the Marineland, sporting a new hairstyle.
Cardiac Hill
Whale Rock and Pt. Vicente Lighthouse
Christmas Tree Cove
Honeymoon Cove
Dominator at Rocky Point
Great Escape on the Avalon wreck with the Sundiver in the kelp.
As we approached Redondo Beach Merry spotted a Fin Whale. We had trouble locating it once it dived, but its blows were so loud that they could be heard for a half mile.
I hope to write a real dive report tomorrow. The swell models show the ocean flattening. I trust them.
1/16/2012 - Smooth As Silt. Diving The FS Loop And White Point Outfall Pipe
Posted by Max Bottomtime
Catalina Guerra joined us this morning as we headed to San Pedro to pick up Kevin Lee. We left early enough so that Kevin wouldn't wait in the Cabrillo Beach boat launch lot too long. Soon after leaving King Harbor we spotted a pod of small Common dolphin. We spent several minutes photographing them as they rode our bow wake. We hastily continued on our way until we found a pod of Risso's dolphin near Rocky Point. A few more minutes of fun and we were back on course. Merry called Kevin to let him know we would be a few minutes late. After hanging up the phone Catalina spotted a Gray whale. A few more minutes passed...Kevin must be very familiar with the parking lot by now. We finally arrived and loaded Kevin's gear onto the boat. He didn't seem to mind the extra half hour sitting...fuming...
Our first dive was on the wreck of the FS Loop off the Los Angeles Breakwater. The wreck sits on a silty bottom and visibility is rarely more than three feet. I told Kevin and Merry to look for Tritonia festiva and Doriopsila spaldingi nudibranchs. I had seen a few of each here before. As we neared the bottom the first surprise was the fifteen feet of visibility. Second was that the entire wreck was littered with Tritonia festiva and Doriopsila spaldingi. I looked like I knew what I was doing.
I was shooting wide angle today, which was a blessing, and a curse. The good visibility allowed me to get some decent shots of the wreck, but I had to shoot nudis at 35mm through an eight inch dome port.
We motored to the White Point outfall pipe for our next dive. Visibility was about ten feet, which is plenty for the small fish and snails found here. Blue ring top snails were the dominant feature of the dive. They seemed to be on every substrate.
We dropped Kevin off and fueled up the boat. On the way home we came upon the largest pod of dolphin I had seen in more than twenty years. Several were leaping high out of the water, usually just before we could get a photo.
I had four days off at New Years. It was foggy all weekend. The next weekend brought us the first high surf of the year. This past week I have been battling a sinus infection. I was diving today, no matter what! Our first stop was the wreck of the Palawan. This is not one of my favorite wrecks, but it had been a long time since I dived it so I thought my perception of it was tainted. It was still boring. Corynactis anemones blanket the outer hull, but the top of the wreck is mostly covered by silt. If someone added some metridiums and a wolfeel or two it would be an exciting dive. Visibility was eight feet and it was very dark. My head was pounding throughout the dive, but I was able to clear all the way down. We checked out the bow, saw four or five fish and tried to get photos. At one point I went to the sand to get a shot of the bow from below, but it was so dark that my camera wouldn't focus.We made a short dive of it, then made a slow ascent. During our safety stop two sea lions, looking lethargic slowly floated our way. One liked to float inverted, and eventually came within inches of our faces. Merry got a couple photos between screams. I got out of my gear, blew my nose and headed for the Topaz Jetty. I hoped to lay line between the three pilings I saw last time and maybe find more. The surface visibility was much nicer near shore, but vis on the sand was only about ten feet. I tied off my line to the southernmost piling in forty-four feet and headed inshore. I made it to the end of my line at the same time as I reached the next piling. I'll have to wait for a better day to complete the mission. For now, if you swim out to thirty-six feet and head north from the middle of the condos on the north side of the Topaz jetty you will see an orange line about four feet off the sand. There are pilings at either end, one at thirty-five feet and one at forty-four. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to blow my nose and take some meds. I'm diving again tomorrow.
Bow of the Palawan
Merry finds something interesting
Tiny Squarespot rockfish hide among the corynactis
12/27/2011 - Conditions Improving. Just In Time For My Return To Work.
Posted by Max Bottomtime
We lucked out this morning by staying close to home. One dive on the Redondo Barge followed by another foray onto the Topaz pilings. I didn't find much to photograph on the barge. I didn't even turn my camera on for the first ten minutes. The pilings were much better. We had about fifteen feet visibility despite the surge, and I even found three pilings today.
Yellow crab
I've been looking forward to this week all year. I have a four day weekend this week and another one next week. The ocean has been flat, so I was hoping for lots of great dives to end the year. The visibility of the past two days has been pretty bad. We've had around five feet vis for most of our dives. I decided to head north and dive the Hyperion outfall pipe near LAX.
This is a no-anchorage zone due to the nearby Chevron Terminal. We had to live-boat it, so Merry captained the boat while I dived first. Conditions on the pipe were worse than any dive this week. Surge, stirred sand, four feet visibility and loud noise from the Chevron tankers. I didn't find any of the sponges nor the variety of nudibranchs I was looking for. The pipe and rocks were covered by brittle stars, chestnut cowries and gorgonian, with a few hydroids and snails thrown in. I told Merry not to bother diving, as I only got a few photos. When I downloaded them later I was surprised to save so many. Merry was not pleased.
We headed back south to try our luck at the crane off Haggerty's.
The surface water was a bright green but looked clear enough to dive. As we approached the bottom I was not surprised to find another bad vis dive ahead of us. Visibility was about four feet, so we looked around the crane and rocks for anything we could get our cameras close to.
The area has a lot of Rough Patch shrimp, Pandalus stenolepis. They are commonly misidentified as Coonstripe shrimp. The Roughpatch has red and blue spots on the sides of its abdomen and the bands cover the entire legs.
We also found a couple more naked clams, Chlamydoconcha orcutti.
After diving we picked up more trash. The balloons prove that it was recently discarded.
12/25/2011 - Conditions Are Still Bad, Or Is It Just A Fluke?
Posted by Max Bottomtime
We left King Harbor this morning in search of better conditions than yesterday. There were also reports of more Orcas heading our way. We didn't find either, but minutes after exiting the harbor we found six Gray whales diving in less than 90 feet off Malaga Cove.
We saw four more at Pt. Vicente before checking out our own places to dive. Most sites had strong currents due to the new moon and large tidal swings. We ended up diving the sewer pipes off White Point. This would be an interesting place to dive on a better day. Blue-ring topsnails and Tritonia festiva were everywhere. The strong surge and blowing sand kept us cowering behind the pipe most of the time.
I found one of these worms earlier this month at Marineland. I have not identified it yet.
The world's smallest metridium anemone.
We wanted to make a kelp dive on our way home. Neptune Cove looked like Catalina. Blacksmiths and sardines swirled below the boat, and we could see twenty feet down the kelp. Once we hit the reef it was a different story. Strong surge knocked us around the entire dive. I spent more than five minutes between taking some pictures while waiting for the surge to subside.
After replacing a fuel pump on the boat this morning, we were anxious to get in a dive. I wanted to stay close to the marina, just in case, so we headed to one of our least favorite sites, the wreck of the Avalon. It's rare that we have good conditions here. Others seem to dive it when it's clear and calm, but not us. With a couple days of Santana winds, we had flat enough seas to expext decent vis. The top twenty feet were very nice. Unfortunately the wreck sits in seventy feet.
I took a few shots of the bow, then swam toward the stern in search of better visibility. It only got worse the closer I got. I made my way back to the bow and ascended, along with a floating kelp plant that drifted toward our line.
I trust the boat to make it to the south side of Palos Verdes tomorrow. I'll continue toe search for clear water.
The ocean was flat as predicted, except when another boat came by and rocked us with its wake. Coffee spilled, utensils fell to the floor and I had just vacuumed this morning.
Our first dive was on a wooden pier piling off the Topaz Jetty. We didn't find any nudibranchs as Craig Hoover did, but I had shrimp pose for me. Visibility was great for Vet's. It was easily twenty-five feet. There was a little of what Merry calls sand scatter, but not nearly as much as we had later at the Hermosa Artificial Reef.
The water at Hermosa was clear, but filled with schmutz. I picked a bad dive to try for wide angle. I found a Dendronotus iris next to the anchor, but I couldn't get much detail with a 16-35mm lens. I called Merry over to see if she have better luck.
The wind and rain from this week washed debris down gutters, storm drains and cement rivers, leaving floating islands of trash in the ocean. We spent the first half of our day picking up after litterbugs before making it to the south side of Palos Verdes. Once the trash pickup was done, the ocean looked as beautiful as it ever does.
We arrived at Marineland to the sound of an urchin boat compressor and a glassy surface. There was no debate about where to dive.
The visibility was better than thirty feet in the upper water, with about fifteen feet on the reef.
Buchanan's Reef is known for three things; Nudibranchs, rockfish and anchors. There were no surprises today. I found an old anchor similar to this one, but couldn't get a shot with my macro lens.
The reefs are covered with fish, nudibranchs, worms, sponges, hydroids, anemones, snails, bryozoan and algae. I could spend all day at Buchanan's and not get bored.
Among the nudibranchs was a tiny Dendrodoris behrensi, the first one I've seen away from Neptune Cove.
We decided to skip a second dive upon surfacing to a cold rain. It's been awhile since we had to use the heater after a dive. Conditions are predicted to be even better tomorrow. We put trash bags on our list.
I dived with three chicks at the same time today. Along with Merry and Margaret Webb, Mary Wicksten, Professor of Marine Biology at Texas A&M (http://www.bio.tamu.edu/facmenu/faculty/wickstenm.htm) joined us for a decapod dive on the crane off Haggerty's. The place was crawling with crustaceans.
12/11/2011 - Orky And Corky Return To Marineland, And They Brought Friends
Posted by Max Bottomtime
Merry and I made two dives at Marineland today and had great conditions, shot a lot of photos and had fun, but that was not the highlight of our day. After leaving Marineland I spotted two small boats a mile and half offshore with lots of splashing going on between them. As we approached we saw the fluke of one and knew we found Orcas. There were twelve of them, as counted by Orca expert Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who was on one of the boats. We stayed with them for more than two hours as they hunted sea lions and even performed a little mating action for us. Several of them swam under our boat a few times and one rubbed his dorsal fin on the side of it.
The National Weather Service and CDIP promised calm seas and no wind this afternoon. I arrived at the marina after work today and Merry told me the wind had just come up two minutes before I arrived. Great! We had a bit of an adventure in the choppy seas after our dive. More about that later.
I told Merry I wanted to dive at Indicator on the west side of Palos Verdes. It's a popular surf site, but with the predictions I jumped at the chance to dive a different spot. The reefs run parallel with sand channels between them, Many of the short walls were covered in Red Beard sponges. I found several dozen in a small area. When I see them at other dive sites I usually only find a couple.
I wanted to practice a macro technique by holding down the shutter and not releasing it until the camera focused and fired. I had mixed results due to one of my strobes being in the shop. It was difficult to get my single strobe close enough to light a subject without creating backscatter.
We even had nudibranchs above water.
Merry found a large abalone, then I found another nearby. This is a good sign. Perhaps they may make a comeback after all. I took one shot, but could barely fit the ab in my frame. As an afterthought, I took a close up of it, and found a tiny transparant shrimp in the photo.
I was enjoying myself so much that I didn't notice that I lived up to my name and surpassed my maximum bottom time. I had to hang an extra few minutes, looking up at the rocking boat on the surface. Back on the boat, we struggled to get out of our gear because we had to take turns fending off a sea lion pup who wanted out of the choppy sea. He tried several times to jump into the boat. I held a pole in front of him, but he would push it with his nose. Merry rushed to the bow to unhook the anchor while I kept the sea lion at bay. He followed her and tried to jump onto the bow. Twice he made it onto the swimstep but he really wanted to get in the boat. I finally got out of my gear, pulled anchor and left the little guy to find another surface platform.
Yesterday I told Merry I wanted to find a Dendrodoris behrensi at the Underwater Arch. I had only seen one in more than twenty years. I found one within the first couple minutes of the dive. Today, Merry said she hoped there would be a Mola Mola cleaning station above the crane off Haggerty's. We dropped into a dozen of the funny looking fish. I think I want to find a gold-laden shipwreck next week.
The water in the top fourty feet was clear blue. Unfortunately, the wreck sits in fifty-five feet. It was murky, and seemed to be lacking the life we usually see there. No school of Rubberlips, no moray eels, no kelp... We had to look close to find any sign of life, but everywhere we looked, we found tiny animals. Shrimp, nudibranchs, worms, even a copepod fell from one of the Molas.
We left the house this morning to find the winds had calmed. I decided to get gas in the boat today instead of tomorrow. The west side of Palos Verdes was flat, but as we neared Rocky Point the swells and whitecaps began to beat us senseless. We didn't have enough gas to turn around and try again later, so I pushed through. It took two hours to get to Los Angeles Harbor, but we did get to see a Mola Mola and a pod of Risso's dolphin close to us.
Angel's Gate Light getting a much need paint job
After spending a week's pay at the fuel dock we braced for impact as we rounded Angel's Gate. Fortunately, we had following seas and the wind had died down. I motored close to shore to check out the dive sites. Marineland was muddy, so I hoped for better conditions on the other side of Pt. Vicente. Neptune Cove resembled Catalina. We could see twenty feet down the kelp and there were schools of blacksmith hovering just below the surface.
I told Merry I wanted to find a Dendrodoris behrensi. I have only found one before and it was here. As soon as I entered the arch I spotted one. I took several shots, then noticed a few drops of water in my housing. I told Merry I was going up to fix it and looked up to see the boat from fifty feet deep.
The visibility was at least twenty-five feet, the best I have seen at Neptune Cove. I cleaned my camera and swapped lenses, then dropped back down for some wide angle. By this time the visibility had dropped and the Sun was setting soon, so I fired off a few shots and left for home.
Dendrodoris behrensi
Mexichromis porterae
Flabellina iodinea
Rock scallop wide open
Entrance to the Underwater Arch
Top of the arch
No Pressure
Blacksmiths munching on copepods in the water column
We were on our way back from four days in Phoenix, dreading work tomorrow and wondering if we missed any diving. We had no internet access at Merry's Mom's house. While stopped behind a long line of cars on Highway 10 in Palm Springs, Margaret Webb called Merry to let her know about conditions. The ocean was flat and there was a Mola Mola cleaning station on the Barge.
We listened to traffic reports so we could avoid more jams and made it home in time to get in a quick dive. Even at 78 feet, it was too surgy for me to get any macro shots. We did see a Mola being cleaned by a Blacksmith just as we hit the barge. Merry saw at least five more.
Despite being shut out photo-wise underwater, we tried to make up for it by motoring over to the Lady Washington tallship. She's visiting Redondo Beach this week.
Iwas born in San Pedro and spent most of my adult life there. I began free diving and later scuba at White Point. It was one mile from my apartment and a relatively easy dive compared to most of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For night diving, I would park under the palm tree just off Paseo del Mar and hike down the fire road. The landslide of the past few weeks has washed away the area. I went down there this afternoon with Merry and Jeff Shaw to get a first-hand look.
My old parking space is now twenty feet below street level
Crews remove asphalt
The beginning of the White Point Artificial Reef
I am used to seeing news vans every time someone jumps off Pt. Fermin, but this was big news this week.
Corymorpha nutans
