Marine Room 05/29/16:All the banded guitarfish

[thez_yo]

I'd been reading intimidating reports like 48ºF bottom temps past the 15fsw (fifteen!! OMG) thermocline, and 5' or less viz lately, and it's been misting/sprinkling for days to boot. I really didn't think anything would come of today's dive plans but just like everything else in life, if you don't even try, the outcome is definitely 'nope'. So we kitted up, and onward we went to conquer the ocean

Today's dive was a nice warm 64-66ºF, 1:37 long, max 17fsw and average 8fsw. We planned to go around low tide expecting a washed-out mess still at the bottom of the Marine Room steps. Well, it's still washed out, but better because now there's sand!

Sand!

More Sand!

Such an inviting sky..

The welcoming committee both topside..

..and down under

I finally got a pic of one of the green fish this time! (It's an Opaleye)

Sometimes all these sea bass just come out of nowhere and you're surrounded.

Blacksmith

Ooh, and we saw some sharks again! More adorable horn sharks this time:

That's some... I don't know. Maybe blenny/greenling/kelpfish hiding in there. All I know is it was nice and colourful, and then it was gone with the next wave of the kelp.

 

[thez_yo]

Now, the first half of the dive was pretty uneventful up until the horn sharks. I thought my magical turtle finding abilities were finished, but then all of a sudden turtle! It's the one with the blue fin tips and head.

Someone on our kick out (on a kayak or something? Maybe one of those inflatable paddle boards?) said something like there's more than one species of turtle here, to my buddy, while my face was in the water. He told me, and I think maybe they're right. The one we saw on the last dive was definitely a uniform sludge-y green and didn't have such a nice round flat shell.

Some more shark-y goodness.

We saw a nice big bat ray swoop past, but I was too slow on the camera for how quick it took off. The scenery:

And all the Guitarfish, finally!

Yup, still ugly out.

But it was a great dive! Parting gift, a tuna crab in the shallows:

I tried to push him back in, but if you've called a dive, you've called a dive and you're done.