Visibility reports from last week were not very enthusiastic. Jim Lyle reported five feet visibility off Palos Verdes. We were hoping a couple of days of Santana winds would clear things up, but we were wrong. Visibility at Christmas Tree Reef was a dismal five feet with plenty of marine snot in the water.
We had bright sunlight in a cloudless sky as were motored around Rocky Point. The water was very green, but I figured it had to be better than my dock dive last week. The water was filled with plankton, diatoms, and all-around schmutz down to the sand at seventy feet, making it a night dive in the middle of the morning.
I left my diopter on the entire dive, photographing animals no larger than a grain of rice. I found a Cadlina sparsa on some red algae. I can count the number of them I've seen in more than three decades on one hand.
Near the end of the dive, I searched a wall where I had found Noumeaella rubrofasciata, Red-Headed Aeolid on two occasions. I found a tiny one (they're all tiny) and took three shots before handing it off to Merry Passage. She had never seen one, so that alone made the dive worth the effort.
Noumeaella rubrofasciata, Red-Headed Aeolid
Cadlina sparsa
Polycera tricolor
Orienthella trilineata
Phoronis ijimai, Vancouver Phoronid
We had bright sunlight in a cloudless sky as were motored around Rocky Point. The water was very green, but I figured it had to be better than my dock dive last week. The water was filled with plankton, diatoms, and all-around schmutz down to the sand at seventy feet, making it a night dive in the middle of the morning.
I left my diopter on the entire dive, photographing animals no larger than a grain of rice. I found a Cadlina sparsa on some red algae. I can count the number of them I've seen in more than three decades on one hand.
Near the end of the dive, I searched a wall where I had found Noumeaella rubrofasciata, Red-Headed Aeolid on two occasions. I found a tiny one (they're all tiny) and took three shots before handing it off to Merry Passage. She had never seen one, so that alone made the dive worth the effort.
Noumeaella rubrofasciata, Red-Headed Aeolid
Cadlina sparsa
Polycera tricolor
Orienthella trilineata
Phoronis ijimai, Vancouver Phoronid
