JUN 05 Dive Reports

[headhunter]

Wow Phil! It's not often you hear about a diver being attacked by a sea lion!

Anyone have any idea what he could have been protecting? This sounded like a bit more than playfulness.

Christian

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Wow Phil! It's not often you hear about a diver being attacked by a sea lion!

Anyone have any idea what he could have been protecting? This sounded like a bit more than playfulness.

Christian

I've had one grab my arm in its mouth before, in a playful way. Today's attack was violent. He grabbed me and shook me like a rag doll, then bit hard. Claudette said he was the same color as my drysuit under water. Maybe he thought I was another male sea lion following too close to his harem, or worse. Maybe he wanted to...never mind. I don't want to think about it!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Hard to tell but I didn't mean to snap this picture. I was holding the camera when I was bitten and must have squeezed the trigger.

Claudette, just before she witnessed the attack.

Ringtop snail on the platform

View from under the platform.

Entertainment coordinator Jeff Shaw

Crossroads. One line heads to the beach, one into oblivion.

Clubbed Tip Anemones on a crossmember

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

On the way back in I took a picture of Claudette swimming along side me when all of a sudden I was being shaken violently by what I thought was Jeff playing "shark" I turned to the left to see and was immediately bitten hard on my left elbow by a bull sea lion. I had to punch his face to get him to release me. I grabbed my elbow and gave Claudette the thumbs up. She thought I was holding my elbow to keep water from entering my drysuit, but I was trying to keep all my blood in. It really hurt! In all the commotion my camera floated to the surface, so it was a good thing I was headed that way.

Phil, I'm glad you are OK!!! Did you see any sea lions around before the attack? Did you see if the Bull was ok after you punched him in the face? That's a pretty dramatic dive report!! I'm glad it wasn't a shark!! I know Divinman had a bull bite him head down in the Coronados and chase him to the boat... I'm glad the bull let you go!!

Sean

 

[MaxBottomtime]

There were no other sea lions in the area. Before we got in the water a pod of dolphins were there. I was horizontal, just minding my own business following my cave line back to shore when I felt something brab either my tanks or manifold. There was no damage to my wing or drysuit other than the left elbow. I actually like seeing sea lions underwater and didn't want to punch him, but it REALLY hurt. I didn't hit him hard, but hard enough that he left. I was amazed at how hard he shook me. I'm 6'3", 200# and had on double LP120s today and he shook me like a rag doll. When we surfaced I told Claudette (HBDiveGirl) that I couldn't wait to get home to post a dive report.

 

[mccabejc]

Come on, we all know it's the "curse of Headhunter Reef". It was hidden for many years, and difficult to find. And now that it has been found, the spirits are angry.

Take the line down, and make an atonement to the spirits. It's the only way.....

Either that, or stop looking like another male sea lion. He thought you were after his chick.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Claudette said he was the same color as my drysuit. I'm just glad he didn't want me to be his girlfriend.

 

[headhunter]

Come on, we all know it's the "curse of Headhunter Reef". It was hidden for many years, and difficult to find. And now that it has been found, the spirits are angry.

Take the line down, and make an atonement to the spirits. It's the only way.....

Haaarrrr matey! It be the curse of the reef that was lost, but now has been found! The bull sea lions are the great protectors of the secret reef and will try to make you "stay with them" if you disrespect it's secrecy!

:dazzler1: Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirates life fer me! :dazzler1:

This is cause for celebration! Then again, what isn't! More rum! :arrr:

Christian :icosm07:

 

[Diver_Jan]

This is MY report from the weekend:

Sorry, it's kind of long, but interesting...I think. FISH ID NEEDED

Saturday, June 25th

Heisler Park

Several met up at the mall. Heisler Park was our destination. Half dove, half stayed Topside and enjoyed the Tide Pools. I believe Jennifer made the comment that 'WE' saw more in the tidepools than those that dove at depth.

Here is a list of marine life that we saw: First off, we rescued several Sea Hares that were exposed to air. We scooped them up and gently got them back in the water. Fortunately, all of them revived. We saw all sizes including babies. Due to low tide, quite a bit of reef was exposed for us to explore. Dennis and I noticed quite a few Lined Chiton's; The rest of the group had fun exploring Gooseneck Barnacles; lots of moss and eel grass that exposed a living enviroment of hermit crabs; sand crabs; brittle stars; purple and red sea urchins; ochre stars; red sea stars; JV Opal Eye and Scorpion fish; vast sea anemone varieties; cup coral; Red Turban Snails; Kellets Welk; California Cone snail; a Leafy Hornmouth; and elbow crabs.

We came upon a pool where we really NEED a JV FISH ID BOOK!!! There were small fish swimming around with thin vertical strips like a zebra. Maybe brownish and black? Hard to tell due to shadows. There were also other 'little' bottom dwellers in the pool as well. Thought I saw a JV Black Sculpin, but hard to tell, for only it's head was poking out from under a rock.

All in all, a great adventure!

Onto Day Two:

Sunday, June 26th

Seal Rock, North Cresent Bay

Surf: 1-2'

Surge: moderate to heavy

Viz: In Red Tide~ ZILCH; past 18 feet: 5'-10' at best

Depth: 44'

Temp: 52' Suunto

Buddy: Wayne

Eight of us met up to dive Seal Rock this morning. Steve S, Steve V, Jennifer Y, Mike, Chris, Tran, Wayne, and myself. Due to low viz, we decided to break up into 'Buddy' teams.

Not having dove Seal Rock before, I gave Wayne a brief orientation to the site. After our buddy checks, we dropped down into the lovely Red muck. Once our ears cleared and we adjusted our bouyancy, we headed to Seal Rock. Due to poor viz, lack of, we headed south a bit, then west...exploring the reef and pretty much keeping it to our right side. I used my flash light to spot out things for Wayne to see. We saw the usual suspects including a large '2 Spot' Octopus and Moray...along with lots of Red Rock Shrimp.

The highlight of our dive was when I spotted an odd colored Scorpion fish. He was ORANGE!!! Basically on the top and lateral sides of his body, then went to the usual brown on the pectoral fins and belly. I have looked in ALL of my fish ID books and can not come up with a name for this fellow. The closest I found was the Rainbow Scorpionfish. Darn, I really wish I had my camera.

All in all, a great dive!!! I even asked the gang if anyone wanted to do a second dive. Sadly, Hmmm...no takers. Instead, we had breakfast and good conversation.

Thanks Wayne for a great dive, and a heart felt welcome to the group!

On another note, while diving last Thursday night, Steve S and I spotted what others had ID'd as a 'Brown Rockfish' However In looking through my books, it turns out that it was a Gopher Rockfish!!!

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Softly, As a morning sunrise…

Location: Pt. Vicente fishing access (“Cardiac Hill”)
Splash: 6:50 AM
Max depth: 45fsw
Run time: 57 minutes
Temp at depth: 50F (Aeris)
Gas: 80 cu.ft. of Redondo Beach air.
Viz: 10-15 inshore, 25+ at deepest pinnacles (45fsw).


We were determined not to let a morning low tide interfere with our sunrise dive plan. Carlos and I drove to Pt. Vicente fishing access, (the infamous “Cardiac Hill”,) as the sun rose in a cloud-dappled sky. I did not know that the cove had THAT many rocks in it….hmmmm. Well, at least the water was glassy and the swell looked small…of course from that high up on the cliff, everything looked small. Actually clambering over 75 feet of watermelon-sized rocks took all of the early-morning focus I could muster. And 2 foot waves can be overhead if you’re knocked to your knees in the tidepool zone. Thanking the Goddess Caffeina for her motivating powers, we finally found water deep enough to don fins, and kicked out to the inshore kelp beds. From the cliff tops, the plan had been to dash out to the far pinnacles at the south end of the cove. Once on the bottom, I went into day-dream-explore mode, confusing my patient dive buddy to no end. It’s so hard for me to dash by a boulder I’ve never seen before! And we were exploring a part of the cove that was all new to me. I blew off way too much time checking out silt covered boulders in the 25 to 35fsw zone, so that we had just arrived at the Really Good rocks at 45fsw when we reached out turn-pressure. The visibility was excellent (25+) at these dramatic boulders covered with multicolored gorgonia and 4 species of nudibranchs. Most of the rocks rose 15 to 20 feet off the bottom, with deep vertical swim-betweens. Before we turned, I asked to surface for a triangulation location check, because these are “destination” pinnacles, and not that long a swim if everyone in the dive party motates along and doesn’t dawdle. Next time I’ll zoom….promise! It was a gorgeous morning for diving. Rising slowly up from our safety stop, the surface was a transparent sheet of silver-blue glass, with clearly visible cerulean blue sky alternating with golden clouds. It felt like touching the sky when I merged through and into open air. Return into the cove was easy, across glassy water and kelp. But the only way out of the water was a pretty graceless crawl/hop/fall over slippery rocks. I do not recommend diving this cove at low tide. A big pod of dolphin came leaping through the cove providing a great reason for “stop-and-watch” breaks in between stretches of trudging up the switchbacks to the car. Thank you, Carlos, for being willing, able, enthusiastic, and uh… patient. We re-loaded the Gotta-Div Scubamobile and drove 3 minutes to Marineland for our second dive of the day.