An extremely disappointing Channel Islands weekend

[merxlin]

Exactly. We had hunters on board but all the dive spots were both diver and hunter friendly. We had FLAT seas and no wind at San Miguel but sucky viz :frown: so even when it looks like it should be great, the ocean still dictates what you will get.

 

[stanky1]

As someone who enjoys spearfishing, I can tell you that those urchin barren areas are usually not great for spearfishing either. The OP also complained about poor visibility, which again makes for poor spearfishing. I doubt that the captain was looking for those two conditions because they are useful to no one.

 

[Jak Crow]

Exactly. We had hunters on board but all the dive spots were both diver and hunter friendly. We had FLAT seas and no wind at San Miguel but sucky viz :frown: so even when it looks like it should be great, the ocean still dictates what you will get.

What sites did you hit? What were their states?

 

[merxlin]

This was at San Miguel Thursday and typical of the surface condition all 3 days- flat and overcast except that the sun came out late Friday afternoon and about noon on Saturday for the last dive. We dove the southwest side of Miguel at Wycliff Ledge, Rain Barrel and Tyler Bight. We did 8 dives at Santa Cruz: Sea Lion Pinnacle, 3 Sisters, Stacy's Lobster Hole, Hazzard's Wall, Cueva Valdez, Diablo Point, Arch Rock and Utah. Viz was from 6-10ft (less if you hit a krill cloud- then it could be zero) to maybe 20ft, but it was a cloudy/murky green 20ft (I'll try to post a video later). Almost all the sites had a sand area outward or a reef area toward the island. Several of there are in the protected areas so there was no hunting. We only saw a couple areas of urchin barrens, and those were isolated spots surrounded by somewhat healthy kelp and reef. temps were from 57 down to 53, but surprisingly the low temp was at 40ft. We had almost 57 at 100ft.

No big animals and not many fish, although some Sheepshead the size of freight trains, and a couple new fish to me. Saw some hooded nudibranchs both attached to the kelp and free swimming. The highlight was about an hours worth of breaching humpback whales while moving to the night anchorage on Friday. There were also some blue whales but we could not get to them.

Our experience on the boat was as it always is for us on the Truth boats: excellent! But my dive shops charters the whole boat every year (this was year #6) so we (and they) know what to expect going in.

 

[Jak Crow]

Sounds like you only hit one of the same sites we did, that being Arch Rock, which was barren. None of the places looked anything like the shot you have above.

 

[TSandM]

Wycliff Ledges is one of my favorite dives ANYWHERE. Of all the Channel Islands, San Miguel is my favorite, but you have to have a bit of intestinal fortitude to dive there sometimes

 

[drbill]

Of all the Channel Islands, San Miguel is my favorite, but you have to have a bit of intestinal fortitude to dive there sometimes

Why the intestinal; fortitude? Not sure I understand.

Sabn Miguel is one of my favs and I've been very lucky to get out there every time we've tried. Love the incredible richnesss of the ecosystem there... PLENTY of munchables in the plankton support plenty of critters. A little difficult to film on some occasions due to the water movement (maybe that's what TSandM is referring to).

 

[merxlin]

Sounds like you only hit one of the same sites we did, that being Arch Rock, which was barren. None of the places looked anything like the shot you have above.

Hmmm, I would in no way call Arch Rock barren. We crawled the ridge from the wash-rock/pinnacle to the arch and back, all in 40ft max and up to 15-20ft. It was covered with life. This is where we saw a sheepshead the size of a school bus, sea lions, and a good number of kelp dwellers. There may not be much in the sand away from the reef, but I never go out that way. I agree there are not a lot of fish, and we saw no rays, sharks or other "bigs" but barren is just not a word I would use.

 

[TSandM]

Oh, I missed that comment about Arch Rock being barren. I thought it was wonderful! We found tons of lobsters and nudibranchs and senoritas and blacksmiths and . . . coffee bean shells, and cowries. I can't even remember all the things we found. It was my first Channel Islands dive. The contrast with the other side of the island was painful, though!

Bill, we've been out at San Miguel when the wind was very strong, the surface was very rough, and we got dropped into MUCH stronger current than anyone expected. That was a challenging dive, and it was a darned good thing that everybody who went in the water there had a LOT of experience, because everybody without a scooter got blown off and had to manage free ascents from 90 feet AND a swim back toward the boat in rough seas. (BTW, this is the experience that convinced me that there wasn't any dive that could make me wish I had a snorkel )

 

[Ben Prusinski]

My experience diving Catalina the past week was fantastic! However the other Channel Islands suffer from the sea urchin invasion scourge that Jak Crow experienced. I liked Farnsworth the best dive site with the unique purple hydrocoral. Saw tons of life with Spanish shawl nudibranch, many types of fish like Garibaldi, Sheepshead and senoritas and cowries as well. Highlight was getting buzzed by 3 sealions at the same time within inches of my face! They sure must like cameras.