Phil and Merry's combined dive report, Hermosa Beach Artificial Reef

[MaxBottomtime]

We had unexpectedly decent conditions off Hermosa today. Closely spaced 1' swell, a good 18' vis, 54 degrees. While Phil was working on macro subjects, I took wide angle of some of the structure that makes up this artificial reef.

Commodore Andy called us and reported 2-6 feet of vis on the African Queen and Olympic II. We had better conditions in Hermosa Beach, but I couldn't seem to get anything in focus today. I managed to Photoshop six images enough for posting, including the World's tiniest Dendronotus iris.
As we approached the bottom, I spotted it atop a tube anemone next to our anchor. He was less than an eighth of an inch long. I later found a larger one, about two inches.

 

[Thiad]

Amazing as always. I was wondering how bad the surf would be, but it looks like it held out nicely for a lot of folks.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I read that Marineland had five feet surf and muddy water today. We picked a good day to save gas.

 

[bperc]

Very nice pictures. Thanks again for sharing.

 

[tdmp]

I have never dove on the Hermosa Beach reef. Is it a boat dive or can you access it from the shore?

 

[ligersandtions]

I have never dove on the Hermosa Beach reef. Is it a boat dive or can you access it from the shore?

I was wondering the same thing. I had no idea there was an artificial reef off Hermosa.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

California Department of Fish & Game, Marine Region, A Guide to the Artificial Reefs of Southern California
It's about a mile offshore.

 

[FrankPro1]

@Merry: 1rst and 3rd WA shots are great! Depth? Size of reef?

@MaxBottomtime: Wow Phil! Gorgeous shots! Were you using back lighting on 2 & 3?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I was trying to move my strobes away from the anemone because of the backscatter. I got lucky.

 

[Merry]

@Merry: 1rst and 3rd WA shots are great! Depth? Size of reef?


Hi Frank!
Sorry not to reply sooner - just saw this. It's 65 fsw at the sand. There seems to be a sizable debris field; I headed to the structures with the most relief, but Phil found the coolest thing of the day, D. iris, on the bottom. You could spend a couple of dives there, just looking around. Except for blacksmith, fish were scarce.

As we began our ascent, we saw a diver (wearing doubles) right below us. Their boat was quite a distance away from ours, so we were pretty impressed with his swim.

Merry