Date: February 5, 2005
Dive Location: Redondo Canyon
Time: 9 AM
Bottom Time:50 minutes
Max Depth: 82
Vis: 15 - 25 feet
Wave height: 1 foot
Temp at depth: 56
Surface Temp: 59
Comments: "Poacher" as in funny-looking 4 inch fish seen 'crawling' along the muddy cannyon bottom at 60fsw. It was thin, speckled brown lizard coloration with prominent white-ridge above eyes, two dorsal fins (one with a black spot), BIG pectoral fins (looked like a beige moth seen from above) and the first three rays of the pectoral fins were little prehensile-looking 'fingers' that the fish used to 'walk' around quickly on the bottom. Paul Humaan's book (pp. 132-135) says they have bony, armor-like plates, but I wasn't fast enough to check. Sat still in my light, but stayed just out of reach when I tried to touch it. Very interesting looking little fish!
We had hoped to introduce our new dive friend, Deborah, to mainland shore diving, but her HP hose had an emotional crisis and decided it just couldn't take the pressure anymore...(and we thought friends who carry extra HP hoses were going a little 'overboard'....we could have saved a dive this time...sigh.) So, with much waving and "parting is such sweet sorrow" protestations, Carlos and I were off to the Canyon...again!
Now for something completely different: Divers going North in the Canyon instead of South...wow. However, it turned out to be the best day-dive we've had here. The exhausted swimming crabs were hidden away sleeping it off, but there were many elbow and Dungeness crabs and spidery brown decorator crabs (2 inches across), many patches of fresh squid eggs amongst the tattered old decomposing patches, sarcastic fringeheads hunkered in Astrea shells, many fantail sole and other flatties, 99 empty-bottles-of-beer-on-the-mud and a free octopus in every one (nearly!), including a tiny octo that stuck it's eyes out at Carlos, squeezed out of the bottle like toothpaste-with-eyes, bunched it's arms tightly under itself and tip-toed across the mud!! (I kept imagining the tinkling of tiny piano keys as it flashed patterns and kept tip-toeing...) Sunlight kept things pretty light with good 20+ viz, even at 80fsw, so it was startling when the world Got Very DARK. Looking up, I thought we were under a 60 foot boat! But it was a HUGE school of little fish that blocked out the sun (da-da-dum!). Very cool. Rising out of the canyon, Carlos was ambushed by a playful little sealion that swooped under him, turned back and zoomed back at and around him. Stayed around us for several minutes as we followed the dredging pipe back to the beach. Some dense sand dollar beds added final pointillistic punctuation to a perfectly pleasant plunge....(couldn't have said that at the time cause my lips were a little chilly.)
And...lesson learned...we purchased spare HP hoses as we re-filled tanks.
Extra post-dive bonus: A little California Grey Whale very near shore at Ave E in Redondo Beach! Looked like about 14-18 feet long, lolling just outside the surf, spouting, showing flukes, then head, then pectorals. A group of common dolphin swooped in close, hung around, and then swam on. It went out and in couple of times, and a passer-by said it's been seen here for a few days. It was gone 30 minutes later, so perhaps it'll find it's way out and Northward. It was a beautiful sight.
(Hey, maybe that's what was stirring up the mud last night and ruining viz at the South end of the canyon!! I can dream, can't I??)
Thanks yet again, Carlos, for doing the nearly impossible: making diving even more fun!
Claudette
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