Labor Day at Cabrillo Beach

[MaxBottomtime]

Evil Jeff's wife Good Sue hasn't been in the water for two years, so Merry and I were going to join Jeff in getting her into Cabrillo Beach this morning. We arrived early to perform leak tests on our drysuits and get in a dive before the heat killed us. The visibility looked pretty nice inshore, but as we swam out to deeper water it dropped to about a foot. We headed back in until we found decent vis and hung out for awhile.
Calicos, perch and a giant kelpfish realized after about thirty minutes that we were not predators and allowed us to get close. Actually, they came over to check us out. While Merry shot video I looked for photo ops. The poor vis kept me from getting any good wide angle, and lack of subjects kept me from getting any good macro. I did manage to find a small flatworm, Prostheceraeus bellostriatus.
After getting out of our gear, Jeff called to say they weren't going to make it. We were a little pleased to know we wouldn't be going back in, but the dive was still fun.

Click on HD

 

[JMdiver]

Hi Phil & Merry,

Looks like you had better vis than we did at White Point on Sat. Nice photos & video.

John

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The funny part was that I read a report of crystal clear water at White Point on Sunday, so we decided to get Sue in at Cabrillo. The only spot we found any vis was at a small reef in nine feet of water.

 

[nwscubamom]

NICE video! (and relaxing music too...)

I have a question though - right after you see the Kelp bass, you go into a scene with some Black Perch. One of them has really bright yellow ventral and anal fins. Is this one displaying mating colors? Do you see that very often?

VERY cool flatworm too! So colorful!

- Janna

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We always see the Black perch, Embiotoca jacksoni with the orange trimmed fins in shallow kelp beds. I can't get close enough to them to get a still picture, but they were hovering next to Merry while she shot video.