Sea Turtle @ Casino Park..despite 58F water...Catalina visitors

[lamarpaulski]

Did a couple dives at Casino Park in cold water, 30ish viz. First dive I encountered a large torpedo ray. Second dive I encountered a medium sized sea turtle !!

Go Pro'd the frigid reptile and posted you tube @ Turtle of the Casino in Catalina Island in Nov19th - YouTube Last week I saw cardinalfish near steps and there is still an exotic (beautiful) damselfish there at base of steps so despite very cold waters some friends from south of the border are lingering.

Paul G

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Very cool! Every couple of years someone spots a turtle in SoCal, but that's the first time I've seen video of one in kelp. I wish you had a shot of the Cardinal fish. I've never heard of one spotted in California before.

 

[fisheater]

Kelp bass, garibaldi, senoritas, sea turtles.

Which of these things doesn't belong with the others?

Well done!!

 

[xyrandomyx]

That's amazing! But can those guys survive for long in such cold water? Or will it die if it can't find warmer water soon?

 

[drbill]

We've had several sightings of turtles, most likely greens, in island waters the past few months but this is the first one I can remember in the dive park. The others were in nearby Lover's Cove or elsewhere. Very cool sighting. They probably come up from San Diego with the unusually warm weater we had earlier this year. I think I've only seen one in 43 years of diving here and it was off Long Point several years ago.

I saw the video of what does look like a cardinalfish although a positive ID wasn't possible from it. It did swim like one. I filmed a Guadalupe cardinalfish in the dive park back in June of 2001. It's the only cardinalfish I've seen in Catalina waters. Interestingly there were several independent reports of cardinalfish in the dive park the past two months. I was sent pictures from one observer, but they were of a kelp surfperch. Can't speak for the others. Warm water conditions this year would be conducive to their spread here, but I have not seen any myself to confirm it. In Paul's video the fish has the right body shape and swims like a cardinalfish.

Guadalupe cardinalfish in the dive park from 2001:

 

[daz88]

So cool thanks fo sharing that video! and on a side note.....58 degrees is warm water. (for those of us that live up north)

 

[blue steal]

Great post, thank for the video.
Wow, I would just love to see one of these in our "cool" waters.

 

[fnfalman]

Thanks for the video. This is why I like diving Casino Point during the fall and winter. All kinds of weird stuff show up.

 

[Teamcasa]

Very cool! Thanks for posting it!

 

[lwronk]

Very cool video. Thank you for posting.