Casino Point, January 15th

[mccabejc]

Wow, Dr. Bill, that's surprising. Do you think the poor viz was due on part to the plume of kaka that we saw on the satellite photo extending almost to Catalina? I figured you guys would be the only ones with decent trip reports this weekend.

 

[Lexy]

Dr Bill - Were you diving Casino Point? Was the viz really 2-5? Oh wow! That's horrible. Is the road open yet? Thanks! Reason I ask is that some of us were planning to head out there on Sunday. <yikes!>

 

[drbill]

My guess on the vis goes like this. Sediment influx from runoff adds nutrients to the nearshore waters. Days of good sunshine combined with added nutrients = phytoplankton bloom. The waters were brownish, but also quite green suggesting the plankton bloom.

I literally could not believe how poor the visibility became. It was bad to start off with and just got worse. My advice, Lexy, don't bother. I'm not going to dive again for a few more days. By next weekend things should look much better (I hope).

I also heard from a tech group diving on the King Neptune tat the visibility was almost as bad (2-8 ft) at the site they visited on their last dive of the day (about the same time as my last dive).

However, the road is open!

Dr. Bill

 

[SoCalAngel]

For those of you who said you were coming and didn't, you are a disgrace to your fellow dive buddies and ScubaBoard members.

I know, I know...It's just that I saw a landsat image and it showed brown goo from mainland to beyond Catalina, so I figured low vis. Then the idea of having to find a different terminal, and it's already so difficult to get over to the U/W Park from the ferry, then there's the added "bonus" of going on a shore boat. Ok, to tell the truth, I slept in! :10:

Oh, and by the way.. the reason we're "all" (well, at least me) P.O.'ed is the fact that you were smart enough NOT to come and experience visibility in the 2-5 ft range by my second dive. I didn't even consider a third one!

Hey, at least you got to get your nitrogen fix!

BTW, you still had better vis then here. I talked to some divers coming out of Shaw's cove. They said 2-3. Maybe a patch or two of 6! They also said LOTS of surge. :yuck:
Hopefully diving will be better by the weekend!
L

 

[drbill]

The interesting thing is that vis was apparently much better 2-3 days ago and started declining Fri/Sat. That reinforces my belief that much of the problem is due to a phytoplankton bloom triggered by nutrients and light. That means this could persist longer than expected (but hopefully NOT through the week and into next weekend).

I'll try to keep people posted as I hear reports this week.

I got to sleep in this morning since there was no question I wouldn't dive today.

Dr. Bill

 

[kelpmermaid]

During our first and only dive yesterday at the park, we had viz at about 20-25 feet, but that was completed before Dr. Bill got in the water, so it must have gone downhill quickly. The temp was surprisingly warm, too - I saw 61F at 75 ft at the Kismet. Nothing too exciting - a big school of jack mackerel, and we did see surprisingly large tube dwelling anemones under the swim platform structure. Well, at least it was wet. A gorgeous day on land, though. BTW, the road to the Casino was clear. Thank you, City of Avalon!

 

[drbill]

Yeah, kelpmermaid, those cerianthid anemones under the swim platform are pretty good size. I like taking video of them because they also seem a little less sensitive to water movement.

The visibility did decline rather quickly. I was shocked at how quickly it went from 15-20 feet to 2-5 feet on my second (late afternoon) dive. There were more divers today and most were saying about 20-25 ft vis when I was there so it must improved again. Both my dives were to 70 feet (same general location) and I got 58 degrees on both. I think vis and temperature were patchy yesterday.

Despite the conditions underwater, surface intervals were warm and sunny! My face got a mild sunburn. That's soCal for you... a flood one week and skin cancer the next.

Dr. Bill

 

[Reeveseye]

If you're planning on diving Casino Point tomorrow (Monday the 17th), don't bother. Save yourself a trip until next week. My wife and I were there today, and it was pea soup - or as she described it, visibility was somewhere around "zero to sucky." The best I saw all day was maybe 10' - 15' in the vicinity of the Valiant wreck, and even that didn't last long. Less than 10' was the average. Even the fish were bumping into each other.

It worked well for us, though. We were there for our NAUI Advanced class, so our instructor had us practice navigating around the park by compass. Sort of a navigation skills trail by fire, I guess. Hope this crap clears out of the water soon - I was getting spoiled by the great winter visibility we were having before the storms came.

 

[drbill]

Reports I had were that vis today (Sun) had improved a bit from yesterday. I'm not diving tomorrow either, but will check on conditions. It was so nice to spend most of the afternoon sitting in the sun, reading my backlog of dive publications, and looking at the pretty ladies walking around in our town (sigh).

Dr. Bill

 

[Lexy]

I did my final Advanced O/W dives on Sunday, YEAH!

I also found the viz to be nasty (10 at best) - but interestingly enough, the water seemed to get better the deeper we went. At about 90' around the Valiant, viz was definitely better than at 30' - guessing viz was 20 feet. We also cruised around the Glassbottom boat and viz wasn't too bad (maybe 20-25 feet).

We took the bad viz. opportunity to focus on skills:
1. Staying close to your buddy
2. Navigation by compass
3. Buoyancy control
4. Using your dive computer to determine your specific location within the water column.