8/17/2008 - Diving Trifecta

Dr. Andy Saxon and Patrick Smith invited us out for three dives in the Santa Monica Bay this morning. We hit the Hyperion outfall pipe, elevated pipe and Star of Scotland. Conditions were very nice for all three dives. The dirty surface water only went down to about twelve feet before opening up to a pleasant 15-20 feet plus vis.
The pipes were coverd with bugula and nudibranches, along with yellow crabs, dock shrimp, feather duster worms, and a lot of fish.
Only Andy saw a giant sea bass on the Star. Patrick pointed out the tile from the dance floor, and the toilet was on the foredeck where I saw it the last time I was here. We passed through two thermoclines on our descent. My computer read 51F while everyone else saw 55F.

Captain Andy prepares to dive

He returns with news of the GSB

Merry and Patrick discuss marine biology

A minute Cadlina flavomaculata in a lid

Patrick studies his own marine life collection

My collection;

And from Andy;

The Threee Stooges Go Diving

8/9/2008 - Alone Again, Naturally

Today was a reminder of most of my first 150 or so dives at Marineland. I had the place all to myself. There were no waves to speak of and the vis was good enough to see the rocks at my entry/exits so I made two easy dives. After swimming in the 71F surface water at Vet's on my last dive the 57F water of Marineland was refreshing. I saw 53F once, but most of the time my computer read 57F.
Our Lady of the Garden seems to be hosting a batstar. It was there earlier in the week as well. There was also a Hermissenda crassicornis in her water bucket, a Christmas Tree worm and hydroids growing on her sides. She looks great for being underwater for such a short time. The edge of the reef where I placed her gets a lot of current and nutrients.
The new kelp between the cove and point is as thick as I've ever seen it. Even on sunny days like today it can be dark enough to require a light in there. Rockfish, octopus and small rays darted about while sea hares formed a spaghetti-laying orgy.
Visibility was only about ten feet, but if it continues to be flat the conditions tomorrow could be quite nice.

I got my usual parking space. RHIP 

Garibaldi guards his nest. 

The stars are out tonight 

Shouldn't there be some '70s porn music? 

Nice hangout. 

Megaloma 

Our Lady of the Garden 

...and of course, what would a dive at Marineland be without nudibranchs?

8/6/2008 - Marathon Dive Week

I feel like Scottfiji. I made a dive at White Point on Saturday, two dives on the Avalon wreck Sunday, two dives at Marineland yesterday and an afternoon dive at Vet's today. Will my gear ever dry?
It was pretty windy around 3:00 but the waves were manageable. I kicked out in the 71F surface water to the end of the pier and dropped into the Salad Bowl. I found a mating pair of Acanthodoris rhodoceras, another mating pair of Polycera atra and five more individual Polycera atras on the same kelp frond. Octopus and Sarcastic fringeheads filled every shell.
Visibility was close to twenty feet below the brisk 67F thermocline. I almost wanted to unzip my drysuit.
For the third time, I found money at Vet's. Maybe I need to quit my day job. :)

8/3/2008 - Avalon Wreck Diving

Conditions were pretty nice on the wreck of the Avalon this morning. Merry and I joined Jon Davies and Frank O'Donnell aboard Frank's Boston Whaler. Frank was unable to dive due to a sinus infection, so we fought through our sympathy and forced ourselves to dive. :)
We dropped near the crane and found a few large lingcod, cabezon and nudies everywhere. Visibility was a good 25 feet, although a little dark below the green surface water. Temperatures ranged from 59F on the bottom to 68F at the surface.
We scouted the reefs near the stern section and found several nudibranchs that I didn't have time to shoot. After an hour surface interval, Jon and I went back down. As soon as I approached the bottom I saw a Peltodoris mullineri, my first one. I soon discovered that my lens was fogged after sitting in the sunlight for an hour. My bad. I remained there for the next half hour hoping the fog would clear, but it never did. Now I have yet another reason to return to the wreck.

Cabezon

Lingcod

Garibaldi guarding his nest

Laila cockerelli

Cadlina limbaughorum

Diaulula sandiegensis

Cadlina luteomarginata

Doriopsilla spaldingi

Peltodoris mullineri

7/27/2008 - Not The Best Dive Day

We've been resolving gear issues lately and wanted to finish up tanks that have been sitting for a week. Marineland looked pretty nice yesterday but my drysuit seals weren't finished yet. Merry just got new seals a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to wait until this morning. I replaced Merry's leaky drysuit inflator valve last night and was hoping to test it today. We arrived early to find waves and dirty water. We really need a boat.
We tucked our crotch straps between our legs and crawled off to Vet's. It looked OK, so I chained my wagon to a parking meter. I didn't need a wagon here. :)
As we approached the bottom my drysuit inflator began leaking. It's the first time it has ever leaked, but still, a bad coincidence. The dive itself wasn't bad, but the water in my boots made the walk up the stairs a little sloshy. When I removed the suit I found that the valve was loose. I tightened it and hope to have a better dive next time.
As for the dive itself, we dropped right into the detritus field and found nudibranchs, skeleton shrimp, crabs and juvenile fish immediately. I saw a Triopha maculata crawling over what I thought was a stick, but it turned out to be a pipefish. We spotted two Polycera atras munching away at bryozoan on kelp fronds and a pair of mating San Diego dorids.
Eggs covered every piece of vegetation. The Sand dabs seemed grateful for Merry's peas, as did a few Sarcastic fringeheads.
I spotted a school of juvenile senoritas and another school of baby lingcod.
We made our way to the water's edge where we were met by the infamous Vet's Step. It took two waves to push us over the sandy lip and out of the water. We need a boat.

Sarcastic fringehead

Mating pair of Diaulula sandiegensis

Triopha maculata and friend

Triopha maculata

Munching Polycera atras

7/20/2008 - Back To The Beach

I finally got in an entire dive without having camera issues. I jammed a dozen new dessicant packs in the housing, put the housing in a cooler and didn't shoot in RAW mode today to keep the camera from heating up too much. I'm not sure which one did the trick, but it worked.
Merry and I dropped down and headed to Ted's Pinnacle. The statue has grown over very nicely with bryozoan, encrusting algae, sponges and even a batstar today. There was a champagne bottle in her bucket, but it must have jumped out. :)
We passed through two thermoclines and the water was dirty, so the fish didn't seem to pay much attention to us. We found a large spotfin sculpin, a first for us, as well as another first, a colonial tunicate. We also found two sets of two swell shark eggs. I can't remember ever seeing two together.
We made it out of the water without incident, which is also a rarity at Marineland.

Our Lady Of The Garden

Swell shark eggs

Colonial tunicates

Sponge and hundreds of brittle stars

Eggs on the half-shell

Cadlina limbaughorum

Hermissenda crassicornis doing his Easter Bunny impression

Triopha catalinae

Anisdoris nobilis

We stopped at the Cabrillo Beach boat launch on the way home and found Lion nudibranchs and a Janolus barbarensis. The water was so muddy that I only got one photo clear enough to post.

Janolus barbarensis

7/13/2008 - Blowin' In The Wind

Steve Lawson invited Merry and me to join him for a day of wreck diving. The swell models all looked good this week and visibility has finally been nice. As we headed out of Huntington Harbor the winds began picking up. We soon had whitecaps and choppy seas to go along with ripping currents. Once under water everything was great. Our first dive was Ross-O Reef. It was crawling with nudibranchs today, along with several Sheephead and a very large Cabezon.
We then headed to the African Queen. The nets on the wreck contained a lot of death and destruction. Sea lion skulls and dead cabezons were found, but there was also a lot of life. The metridiums were open, as were the sand anemones. Steve pointed out a Wolfeel inside the bow.
My housing fogged again today, but I managed to get several marginal images.

Ross-O Reef

Very old anchor

Nudibranchs r Us 

Security guard Lingcod 

Chris prepares to brave the elements

Tony serves as DM/Anchorboy

Net on the African Queen

Anemones aplenty

Josh, Chris, Tony and Safety Steve tidy up the boat

Merry supervises

7/12/2008 - Cumanotus sp. sighting at Vet's

Merry and I went to Vet's after I got off work today to finish off a couple of tanks we used last week. We weren't expecting too much, but I dropped right next to a polychaete I'd never seen. Unfortunately, my lens was fogged after passing through the thermocline at thirty feet. It went from the upper 60s to 51F very fast. I kept shooting despite the fog. I stayed with the little worm for nine minutes before moving a few feet, where I found three Cumanotus sp. nudis laying eggs. Merry found another one about ten feet away. I had only found one of them in La Jolla Shores and suddenly there was a convention at Vet's.
I also spotted a Triopha maculata, Flabellina trilineata and several Sarcastic fringeheads, including one out in the open. As we made our way up the canyon slope it began to get dark. I figured we reached the poor vis in the shallows, however Merry pointed up at a baitball of sardines blocking the Sunlight. We hung out with them for awhile, then a school of Jack mackerel followed us all the way from the canyon to ten feet. Just as we got into four feet I spotted a tiny dark brown fish with a large pectoral fin. I think it was a newborn Giant sea bass, about 3/16" long. We walked out of the water to six inch surf and I turned to Merry and asked,"Who says there's nothing to see here in the daytime?"
Visibility in the canyon was at least 25 feet, and it was better than ten feet all the way into the beach.

Unknown polychaete

Cumanotus sp. convention 

Our work here is done.

I guess all the shells and bottles were taken.

7/5/2008 - Will We Ever Dive Again?

Merry and I were planning to collect specimans for Leslie Harris, collections manager for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum this weekend. I was excited about doing some actual science diving. Unfortunately, once again the ocean won't cooperate. I can't remember my last easy beach dive. The surf was up at White Point and the visibility was down at Marineland. Visibility in Redondo Canyon was reported to be twenty feet yesterday, but getting through the surf was next to impossible. We tried again today but conditions were worse. I can't wait to get another boat. The only way to enjoy the water today was on the surface. We unloaded our dive gear and loaded Raquel, Merry's long board. Once she got in the water she realized the wave intervals were so short that it made paddling out difficult. I think we'll try diving Malibu tomorrow, and pack Raquel just in case.

6/21/2008 - Who Stole The Vis?

Reports from yesterday mentioned 15 feet vis at Marineland. Today it was 1-2 feet with an occasional spot of three feet. The surf was up, but long lulls allowed relatively easy entry and exit. Only two of us dived. Despite the poor vis I got to see a Dendronotus stalk and eat a tube anemone and another lay eggs.

5/26/2008 - Memorial Day At Marineland

About a dozen divers showed up for our traditional Sunday Barbeque a day late today. Merry and I were in Phoenix this weekend. We looked at the ocean before we left and it was a mess, with high surf predicted for the remainder of the weekend. Evil Jeff called yesterday to let me know that it flattened out nicely, so today was on. The cove looked pretty milky from the top of the trail, but the dive conditions were pretty nice at the point. The water has warmed up nearly ten degrees since last week and a few Rainbow nudis were still hanging around.
We've spotted a large Batray in the same area over the past month and he was still there today. Jeff Conner reported seeing as many as five yesterday.
Evil Jeff Shaw experimented with lots of new equipment today. His dry gloves didn't stay dry, but his drysuit did. Merry forced him to bring his camera along, so hopefully he got some better pictures than I did.

5/17/2008 - Long Day At Sea

Merry and I had the honor of being invited aboard the Moby Kate for a day of diving with Dr. Andy Saxon and Patrick Smith. We loaded up the truck and headed to Santa Monica, then towed the boat down to San Pedro for three dives off San Pedro/Palos Verdes.
Can we go diving with you? Pretty please?

Our first dive was at Frog Rock. The reef was filled with Sheephead, including a large male hiding under a rock. When we surfaced, we discovered that a sign had mysteriously appeared on the float.

We made a second dive at a spot called IW. Nobody knew what the initials meant, so we'll call it I Wonder. We then headed to Marineland to find the Rainbow nudibranchs, Dendronotus iris. The visibility was much better than yesterday at 12-15 feet. Merry and I got to witness one nudi arch its back and chomp down on a tube anemone. Unfortunately, none of my photos were any good.
Phil, Merry and Patrick are ready to jump in the pool.

Sheriff Andy

I think this is a Discodoris sp. 2 as described by Dave Behrens.

The rest of today's critters

After hauling the boat back on the trailer we headed to Prontos for lunch. Don Robarge told us that the waitresses are young and beautiful. I didn't know he meant this young. Paging Chris Hanson.

5/16/2008 - Making Friends At Marineland

5/14/2008 - Conditions Improving, Despite Being On Vacation

It seems as if every time I take a week off work, the dive conditions turn horrible. The past two days were no exception. I stopped by Vet's only to see the waves were much higher than yesterday. I drove around to Marineland thinking it would be another dry vacation day. To my surprise, there were only a few small waves in the cove, and the dirty water was contained there. Not planning a Marineland dive, I left my shower and wagon home. It was a nice, very warm day for walking .6 miles in a drysuit with a 119 cu ft tank on my back. To make matters worse, I dropped a glove along the trail and didn't notice it was missing until I was halfway down the hill. I turned back and found it...near the top of the trail. By the time I got to the water I was already drenched. I put on my new dry gloves and crossed my fingers. For the first time they actually stayed connected to my drysuit after two wet dives.
I dropped in the area we've come to call Rainbow Nudi Bank. I immediately found several who seemed to be napping. The only movement I saw was out of the corner of my eye when one came by, swimming in mid water. I took one quick shot before he settled on the bottom.
I had at least twelve feet of visibility all the way back to the edge of the cove, where it went to less than a foot. I swam in to six feet, right in front of my exit point. I love familiar surroundings. The water temperature was colder than I've seen it in over a year at 47.8F, but with my gloves staying on I didn't notice.

5/12/2008 - Dry Glove Experiment, Take Two

I usually avoid Redondo Canyon during the day, as most of the interesting animals there are nocturnal. I wanted to try out my new dry gloves again, but the water was dirty from Cabrillo Beach around the peninsula to Redondo. Merry and I debated for a long time and decided to go for it. For the first half of the dive we saw pretty much nothing, then all of a sudden the bottom came alive. There were thousands of skeleton shrimp, plus several nudibranchs including Triopha maculata, Dendronotus frondosus, Flabellina trilineata and Hermissenda crassicornis.
We found a dead jelly tumbling around the canyon and many salps washed up on the beach. The big find for me was a large Moon snail laying eggs. I've seen the eggs for decades and never saw one actually being produced.
The gloves remained in place and completely dry until I surfaced, then we each had one pop off. Back to the drawing board. Water temperature in the canyon was 49.3, so I'd better hurry.

5/10/2008 - Some Luck, Good And Bad At Marineland

I had fewer camera issues today, but I figured out all new ones. Merry and I tried dry gloves for the first time. They popped off our drysuits several times in the 51F water. I'll adjust the latex after the suits dry.
In the meantime, we did manage to enjoy the dive. We found a couple dozen Dendronotus iris in a small area, plus the usual hundreds of nudis that make Marineland home. The visibility was down to less than eight feet today and the surge had picked up considerably since yesterday. We made it back underwater right to our exit point despite the near zero vis in the cove.

5/3/2008 - Love That Dirty Water

Merry and I went out with Scott and Margaret Webb aboard the Popeye Maru this morning to look for Dendronotus iris at Marineland. The ocean didn't cooperate, but we did get to see two whales travel under the boat. We turned back toward Redondo Beach and decided to try for a dive on the Barge.
We could see a large thermocline, but before we reached the bottom of it, it got so dark that I needed to use my light. We didn't see the barge until we were on it, but we stayed down in hopes of finding interesting critters.
We didn't see any Simnia snails in the red gorgonians, but Hermissenda crassicornis were laying eggs everywhere. A sea lion buzzed us in between harrassing the Blacksmiths. After circumnavigating the wreck we headed back up through the dirty water. Scott and Margaret aborted their dive right away. At least they won't have to fill tanks. :)
Two Flabbelina trilineatas munching on a popsicle.

Hermissenda sniffing out a cup coral.

Corynactis californica

4/27/2008 - Fog Wreck And Ross-O Reef

What a great day. The ocean was flat, the Sun was shining and we were diving before it got hot. We were already under water by 7:45. The water at the Fog Wreck was green and dark, and the current was ripping. I turned on my light halfway down, expecting night dive conditions on the wreck. As we approached the bottom the vis opened up to a little better than fifteen feet. We spotted two Wolfeels right away. Merry freed a brown rockfish caught in the net. The net itself may be removed next weekend. It is off the wreck for the most part, but the lines attached to lift it are tangled all around the net. I moved one, and we ascended into the current again.
One of the two Wolfeels
 

Fuse panel

Metridiums

Lift line caught on a valve

Flabellina trilineata

Anemones

Some time after the first dive I lost the deflector to my housing, so all wide angle shots on the second dive were dark and had plenty of backscatter.
Our next dive was at a target Ross-O wanted to check out. He has a cold and had to remain topside. Merry and I felt bad for him, but that didn't stop us from diving. :)
Ross said it was probably a rockpile that nobody had ever seen, but we might like to explore. We saw the bottom from about fifty feet and the reef was incredible. It was a 20-25' tall structure covered in every color imaginable. Clouds of Blacksmith moved through the water column, chased occasionally by large cabezons. Sponges, sandbass, red gorgonian, lingcod, rainbow seaperch, black perch, rubberlips and anemones were everywhere. We only spent about twenty minutes on the bottom, but will definately go back. The reef was a small version of Hawthorne Reef, but the marine life was more concentrated. Merry and I named it Ross-O Reef.
The water column was filled with jellies large and small.
Water temp on the first dive was 52F with 48.6F on the second. I didn't even notice the cold water due to the beauty of the reef and the ripping current.
Lingcod near the anchor

Sponges, anemones and tunicates, oh my!

Merry goes exploring

The reef and fish

Safety stop jelly
 

I forgot to mention the Coke bottle Merry found yesterday. It was manufactured in Compton California at the Maywood Glass Company for the Coca Cola bottling company in Salt Lake City between 1951-58 and is in excellent condition. It is Evolution #9 from the link.

Coke Bottle Evolution

4/26/2008 - White Point Science 101

Evil Jeff Shaw joined Merry and me for an adventurous dive at White Point this morning. Our plan was to locate the flatworm I found two weeks ago. No such luck. We had surgy, green water this morning and the low tide made for a tough entry and exit.
We managed to have a pretty good time, as we always do.
We located some of the ridges and were all amazed that there wasn't an inch of real estate not covered by some type of marine life. Tunicates, sponges, anemones, worms, algae and nudibranchs were everywhere. After chillin' for an hour(the water was 51F)we headed for the cove to collect a small sample of the vacuolate sulfur bacteria to check out at Merry's lab. It's amazing the things we swallow while diving.
We grabbed our specimans just as two guitarfish scooted by. The surge had picked up considerably so we surfaced just inside the cove and surface swam to the rocky shoreline. Nobody was killed or injured, except a few copepods.
Proliferating anemone, Epiactis prolifera

Perhaps a yellow variety of lightbulb tunicates

Phoronids, sponges, worms, alhae, anemones and nudibranchs abound

At Merry's lab, we found more animals and algae

4/20/2008 - Amazing Day At Marineland

Non dive report, but a great day to be at Marineland. Merry and I received a message from Divebum Don that the waves had picked up overnight. I unpacked the dive gear and loaded the Bottomtime Buggy for a day of rock hauling. There is a rock that we found last year and have devised various schemes to retrieve it. The easiest way would have been to dig the rock out of its semi-permanent location in the rocky shoreline near the outfall pipe between the Point and Cobble Beach, somehow roll it downhill into the water and float it with liftbags while I swam it to the cove. The conditions prevented us from getting in the water so I lowered the Bottomtime buggy over the cliff and pulled it along the rocks to the pipe. Thank goodness for knobby tires.

I lifted the 116 pound megarock into the wagon and Merry and I trudged our way back to a steep trail at the midway point to the cove. Getting the wagon back up the cliff was hard, but nothing compared to the rock.

I managed to get it near the base of the cliff with a lot of effort. Don and Drysuit Greg decided to go up the hill for a tarp and come-along for the rest of the lift. While they were gone I moved it a foot here, a foot there. Before I knew it I had it ten feet from the top of the trail. Don showed up and manhandled it with me the rest of the way.

It was almost as hard getting it up the trail in the wagon, but it is now at home, waiting to join its rightful place in Merry's rock garden. Every rock we have came from our local dive sites, mostly Marineland. I hope removing so many rocks made the entries and exits there easier. :)

While Merry and I were draggin' wagon over the rocks, Don, Greg and Cyber the Wonder Beach Dog went spelunking in Whaler's Cave.

The recent storms have cleaned out the cave of homeless debris and the net, which was deposited on the beach a few months ago. Don called this week and said it was removed, likely by the construction crew while they were working on the lower part ot the land. When we got there this morning we were surprised to find that the power of the ocean works both ways. It was being pushed back up into the cave! I saw a brass thru-hull on it and thought that some California Wreck Divers may want to haul the net out for us.

After high tide I went to the cave thinking I could haul the newly freed net off the beach and onto Terranea property but when I got there I was shocked to find that it was gone. The ocean had swallowed it up once again. Later in the day, Don saw it coming back onto the beach. Just as I went to take a few more pictures, the ocean pulled it offshore and it disappeared. I have a feeling it won't be the last time we see this net.

We ended the day with Chef Don cooking sausage and elk that Merry's friend brought down from Montana. Despite the ocean not allowing us in, it was an amazing day at Marineland, well worth the effort.