Is SoCal water considered blue or green?

[ScubaDoo83]

I'm headed to Catalina Island in a couple of weeks for a weekend liveaboard where I'll be obtaining my AOW, so excited! I'll be taking footage on the GoPro and will have all of my filters with me but I am unable to tell in other videos I've seen whether the water is blue or green. Which filters do you guys use down there?

 

[SanDiegoSidemount]

Catalina is blue this winter. VERY blue.



Taken using a GoPro 4 Silver with Backscatter "dive" filter. You may want to use a "deep" filter past 60'.

 

[merxlin]

Agreed. Its as blue as I've ever seen it. That said, even when it is greenish it still shoots well with the blue water filters.

 

[ScubaDoo83]

Awesome, thanks guys!

 

[drbill]

Depends. The past 8 months or so water temperatures have been unusually high so phytoplankton growth is restricted by nutrients and the water has been pretty blue with generally great visibility. However as the invasive Sargassum dies off, the water tends to turn green and spring is usually the time for increased phytoplankton productivity due to longer daylength and (usually) high nutrient levels. It's been a month since I've dived the island (was in Palau for several weeks then editing that footage) but I plan to head down today to see how conditions are.

 

[OCdiving Deb]

Late April and especially May are the months most likely to suddenly turn green so you may want to have a magenta filter with you, just in case. As others have stated, our water has been especially blue and clear this past year. Spring 2014 was surprisingly blue throughout and we had only a short span of green water during a summer month. I forget when that was but the timing was not typical. Little about our 2014 conditions were typical.

 

[drbill]

Did one dive yesterday out here at Casino Point (Catalina). Conditions were UGLY! The blue water we had so much of the past year had turned murky green due in part to the fragmentation of the invasive Sargassum horneri alga as it dies off in its annual cycle and possibly in part due to phytoplankton blooming. Of course this applies only to Casino Point conditions. Elsewhere on the island things may be better.

 

[SanDiegoSidemount]

Did one dive yesterday out here at Casino Point (Catalina). Conditions were UGLY!

Wow, what a difference a week or two makes. :-(

 

[Lopez116]

Laguna has turned green as of the last few weeks as well. Dove Deadman's yesterday and was green and somewhat murky. Still a fun dive though.

I used my SRP CYD lens all winter and got great results. Now, not as good. I'm going to try out their GR lens.

 

[ScubaDoo83]

Thanks for the reports guys. I just got done putting together my video kit and I'll have all of my filters in tow just in case.