Mini Squid Jog at Vet Spark 1/31/08

[HBDiveGirl]

You've heard all about the Massiveness of the Squid Run at La Jolla Canyon last week... amazing! Thanks Josh and Jen for the news reports and photos, and the encouragement for divers to come and see!!!

We of the Vet Spark Mudhole SLF (Squid Liberation Front) would like to announce a sort of HomeDVD version of the LJS IMAX event.

Ken Liu and I dived Veteran's Park last night (1/31/08,) and enjoyed great U/W conditions and enough squid to see the whole natural history cycle in action. This is the first time Ken L. has seen all this, and he's like a kid in the squid-candy shop

... it's great!! (That, and his new Massive HID light that meant the squid were looking for us as much as we were looking for them

.)

Location for Max Squidness:

1. Enter at the middle stairs, 1/2 way between the shower building and the pier.
2. Kick out to end of pier, (or until it's not fun anymore, whichever comes first. Your surface conditions may vary.)
3. Motate out on a 270-280 compass heading, and go down the canyon wall.
4. 65-70 fsw: Start looking around for squid egg baskets and squid.
5. Drift downwards and to the right (toward the pier) to find more. We went only to 80-90 last night (Ken L.'s in a wetsuit, 55F, 1hour+ dive, in last stages of popsicleness before buying a drysuit.
   
   )

We saw:

• Mating pairs, at least a couple dozen, the male's arms brick-red against the female's very white body.
• Females carrying egg cases, seeking places to attach them
• Baskets of fresh eggs, next to mouldering piles of last months eggs now rotting like phat gray spaghetti.
• A female with an egg case forcefully dive into a big egg basket, shoving, pulsing, digging in... and then emerge WITHOUT THE EGG CASE!
  
  Yeah Baby!!! We saw this happen twice, and both times we couldn't help cheering and clapping!! Too funny!.
• Zombie squid, with stiff old-witch arms and splotchy bodies, their chromatophores sputtering like busted buzzing neon signs outside of run-down bars on the outskirts of town. "Mil... T..m" zort-zort "Mil... T..m"
• Dead squid! Let me count the ways:
  1. being fought over by 6 swimming crabs (Portunus xantusii)
  2. under piles of Kellet's whelks
  3. spiked into the mud, like a lawn dart
  4. lying motionless on the mud (only a few, not the acres of white Lincoln logs like at LJS!)
  5. clutched to the armored bosum of a red rock crab, as he daintily ripped off bits to eat.
  6. being carried around by a living male squid who would fail all the auditions for the SQUID RATE-A-MATE game show. (thank you, Mo2vation for THAT unforgettable brain implant
  
  )
  "Trying to mate with a dead squid....umm, yee'ah... OK.... Next!!!"

There were two squid boats at the surface, pretty far out, with lights-a-blazing.
I heard/felt only one sea-lion bomb as we were exiting the surf.

A very happy team of three divers came out after us, all lit up with the fun experience... and all saying "*** were those explosions??!?!?! I kept looking at my gauges to make sure my tank hadn't exploded!!!!"
They had been at 70 fsw when three sealion bombs went off, and had the full-body concussive fun.
But they were all glowing with the excitement of seeing a squid run, even a small one, for the first time.

It's a good place to be... even when it's just a small jog rather than a Boston-marathon trampling throng.

Thanks, Ken L. for the unending enthusiasm to dive, even on cold nights wearing that crazy exposure suit that lets all the water in. You are tough, and lots of fun to dive with. Congrats on the wonderful new light!!! You wielded it smoothly.

Wasn't it fun when that small herd of 50 squid came rushing upon us from the darkness?? I TOLD you... with two massive HIDs.... the squid come looking for US!!

Squid-time, folks. Go See 'em while they're still moving!

~~~~~
hbSquidGurl

 

[drbill]

Darn.... I hope they hit Catalina this year. I'd buy them all tickets on the Catalina Express if I could afford it!