Awesome dive off the Catalina quarry 12 APR 09

[fnfalman]

I went out with the Sun Diver Express boat (formerly Island Time) chartered by Eco Dive Center. I was a lone so the dive master teamed me up with an instructor (not from Eco) /photographer.

We did two dives at the quarry area and the third was at Yellowtail Point. The first and third dives were very shallow and we were hard pressed to go deeper than 25-ft, while the second dive, we sucked bottom at around 40-ft. The sites were nothing to rave about but MY GOD!!! The marine life AWESOME!!!

I saw a yellow striped butterfly fish. Aren't these things suppose to be tropical coral fish?

Lobsters galore, eels, octopus, torpedo ray (didn't touch it this time), turbot, two kinds of sea hares, abalones, California scorpion fish, sculpin, some sort of funky translucent/electric blue nudibranch.

Oh, and half of the divers on the boat were HOT BABES!!!

 

[Teamcasa]

Sweet!
I love those little scythe butterfly fish!

 

[drbill]

Actually the scythe butterflyfish (see my newspaper columns #45, #155, #204 and #242) has a "tropical" to subtropical distribution, but is found in deeper, colder water there. That is one of the reasons we can see them here off Catalina at several locations (the two quarries being among the best). They can survive and apparently reproduce (based on my observation of juveniles on several occasions) in shallower waters here off the island because the temperature is appropriate for them.

Not sure why you were limited to 25' at the quarry. I've done dives to 200' there and the base of the quarry rock in some spots is about 80 ft. Yellowtail Point is a different story... but keep your eyes open there for the rather interesting orangethroat pikeblennies (see column #188 and #197). Way cool critters.

 

[fnfalman]

It was just so unexpected to see a tropical coral fish showing up in California water, at least to an uninitiated diver like myself. I thought it was cooler than cucumber.