Sandy Dunkin'

[MaxBottomtime]

Merry and I made another venture out in the sand at Marineland this afternoon. We've had luck the last couple of dives out there finding unusual critters and today was no exception. The first half of the dive was pretty boring. Sand anemones, seapens, sea stars and not much else.

Windmill worms were everywhere, some with an interesting clear appendage, or maybe it was another worm.

While checking out clumps of broken kelp I found my first Acanthodoris brunnea. Better than that, I found my first two!

We had two schools of smelt surround us while we checked out a Mantis shrimp. He didn't seem interested in coming out of his den so we headed back toward the beach. We soon came across a Pacific electric ray buried in the sand. He didn't seem to mind us, but we didn't get close enough to disturd his hiding place.

We exited exactly at a minus tide, which makes it much easier to walk out, as we were standing in mud rather than the usual hill of rocks in the surf zone. Visibility wasn't bad for low tide at twelve feet, with 59F water.

 

[FrankPro1]

Nice finds out there in the sand! Charlie and I also did a Marineland dive today. We opted for the Garden, but also went out to check for sand critters. We didn't find anything note worthy though.

 

[mselenaous]

Nice photos. Thanks fo posting Phil.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Nice finds out there in the sand! Charlie and I also did a Marineland dive today. We opted for the Garden, but also went out to check out the sand critters. We didn't find anything note worthy though.

Most of the unusual critters are out where the sea pens get pretty tall, past the 45 foot depth. We found the nudis at 63 feet. BTW, did Elena sell Charlie a new drysuit yet?

 

[FrankPro1]

Most of the unusual critters are out where the sea pens get pretty tall, past the 45 foot depth. We found the nudis at 63 feet. BTW, did Elena sell Charlie a new drysuit yet?

No drysuit just yet. I think he's going to hold off for now, so he can purchase a housing for his HD camcorder. We found some sea pens, sand stars and a derelict lobster trap but not much else in the 40-50ft zone. Next time we will go out a little farther and see what we can find. The garden is really interesting. A nice transitional zone where you can explore sand, mini pinnacles and kelp forest. It was my first time exploring this area, but certainly not the last.

 

[mselenaous]

LOL...no drysuit yet for Charlie, though he keeps talking about it.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

No drysuit just yet. I think he's going to hold off for now, so he can purchase a housing for his HD camcorder. We found some sea pens, sand stars and a derelict lobster trap but not much else in the 40-50ft zone. Next time we will go out a little farther and see what we can find. The garden is really interesting. A nice transitional zone where you can explore sand, mini pinnacles and kelp forest. It was my first time exploring this area, but certainly not the last.

Did the lobster trap have a fifteen foot rope on it and the door ripped off?
One of my favorite things to do after diving the point is to go into 10-15 feet inshore at the garden and check out the Christmas Tree worms, blennies, opaleye and baby Garibaldis around the large boulders. It's a little difficult with the kelp we've had this year, but there really are interesting things in the area I used to call the Dead Zone.

 

[FrankPro1]

Did the lobster trap have a fifteen foot rope on it and the door ripped off?
One of my favorite things to do after diving the point is to go into 10-15 feet inshore at the garden and check out the Christmas Tree worms, blennies, opaleye and baby Garibaldis around the large boulders. It's a little difficult with the kelp we've had this year, but there really are interesting things in the area I used to call the Dead Zone.

That sounds like the same trap. At first I thought there was a pair of Barred bass stuck inside but after shaking the cage they fled out one of the openings. The shallow kelp beds were a bit hard to navigate without getting snagged but we found some interesting critters there, including an octopus and some very large hermits. Also we found an unusual amount of scattered shells and carcasses in this zone.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Merry calls that area the Shell Zone. The shells are even more numerous in the shallows at the bend just before the SE corner of the hotel. Lots of octopus in the area. There's a large batray who is almost always in the sand a few feet off the reef there as well.

 

[LLKZ16]

Phil, How were the conditions? I plan on going in the morning. BTW, nice find on the Acanthodoris Brunnea!! I have only seen one at Vets at around 80 feet and I would love to see some more at some point in my life....lol