FrankPro1
Contributor
After more then a month long dry spell, SpKelpDiver and I finally squeezed a much needed dive in. And what better place to break our ocean fast then where it all began, Marineland, located on the Palos Verdes peninsula. Conditions weren't the most ideal, but reports of decent vis and mako encounters pushed us to do the long swim to the point. A group of anglers anchored off the point landed at least 5 fish during our swim out, effectively scaring off most vertebrate photo subjects. The reefs were especially vacant of larger fish with only a few juvenile sheephead and barred bass hanging about. We explored the Rainbow Nudibranch Bank of Long Point in search of Dendronotus iris, paying special attention to the tube anemones in the sand between the reefs @ 50ft. Unfortunately we didn't spot any Dendronotus, but we did find a group of San Diego Dorids, a few California Cone snails and some especially large Diaulula nobilis individuals. Going from 90 degree weather to 53 degree water is enough to shock anyone's core, so after 25 minutes at the point we headed into the shallows and made our way through the Garden to warm up. Where Long Point was especially devoid of fish, the Garden was a welcome change. With plenty of photo subjects abound we ate up our remaining psi there. On our way back to cove Charlie spotted a possible octopus den and quickly found its inhabitant. This was the most curious 2 spot Octopus we have ever encountered. Charlie offered him several shells which he quickly picked up and discarded after noticing they were empty. Charlie then put his hand outside the Octo's den which he was especially interested in. For a moment it looked like he would come completely out to inspect the wiggling neoprene but alas Charlie's hand wasn't to his taste, so he crept back into his den. Here are a few shots from the dive:
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