Secrets of the Kelp Forest...

[Peter_C]

Oh course, I'm making a drastic lifestyle change already.

By that I meant no longer using plastic bags ever! Cloth grocery bags are way better anyhow. Making sure to recycle as much as possible. Pickup trash when you see it. Not purchase products that are not environmentally friendly. Along with other such things.

At the college in which I teach (Environmental Science), I squeeze into the syllabus one week of preservation/conservation of Monterey Bay. It's not part of their curriculum, and it takes more time to grade extra papers, but I do it for the passion I have of our coast line.

GREAT JOB MIKE! :cool2:

 

[mikeguerrero]

Peter,

I'm really looking forward to diving with you one of these days, I keep telling Kathy, I think you are a cool person and that I'd get along with you.

You have an upbeat personality and I like your wit and knowledge of diving. Maybe we could get a day that I could dive with you and Ben Ca, being that he's close to you.

I've really been wanting to dive with him, but haven't gotten the chance.

I will be at Wallin's on Feb 6th Sat for the doubles tryout and then doing a mini class with Don for doubles.

Been missing Kathy several times for a dive day for skills, I really need to do some skills, but I mostly been diving with recreational non DIR divers, lots of fun, but no skills.

 

[Peter_C]

I like your wit and knowledge of diving. Maybe we could get a day that I could dive with you and Ben Ca, being that he's close to you.

I don't actually dive, I just talk about diving on the internet FWIW Ben is over 50 miles from me.

I will be in at Wallin's on Feb 6th Sat for the doubles tryout and then doing a mini class with Don for doubles.

If ocean and weather conditions are crap I will be there too. Otherwise it is the NCD club dive, and we already paid for the campsites.

I really need to do some skills, but I mostly been diving with recreational non DIR divers, lots of fun, but no skills.

Aren't we all recreational divers? I know I am. So far I have not found a diver yet that couldn't benefit from doing some drills and skills. In fact many of them NEED to do the drills to realize they have forgotten how. I have first hand knowledge of this. I watched one of my crew hand me his primary after we had just completed a drill of him going OOA where I donated my primary to him. So with no reg in my mouth and holding his, I am sitting waiting, waiting, waiting until I see the worried look start turning to a high stress level as he realizes he doesn't have an air source. At that point I gave him back his reg and popped my own back in. He was supposed to donate his octo to me. Point being most every diver can use a couple of drills on every dive. Just plan them out before descending.

 

[drbill]

On another note, how did they manage to get video of a harbor seal/sea lion school? Talk about an epic dive.

Ocean Futures has plenty of stock footage they could have used to put this together along with anything they've shot specifically for the episode. I just "chatted" with Dr. Richard "Murph" Murphy, Cousteau's marine biologist, about the show but didn't ask specifically where the footage came from.

There are dive sites down here such as Anacapa Island and Santa Barbara Island where filming sea lions would be a snap. Don't know about up there. Harbor seals down here tend to be a bit more wary, but I've had plenty of close encounters with them over the years, including with one that played "football" with me and my dive buddy using a sea cucumber on a dive at Long Point (Catalina) back in 1971. It brought the sea cucumber up to us to initiate contact. Wish video had been accessible back then!

 

[rdjiv]

Great story about the seal!

It makes sense that a well-connected person like Cousteau would be able to have his pick of the lot for video presentations. But still, here in Monterey I haven't seen more than three harbor seals at once, and then it was only for a fleeting moment. They could have been sea lions as it's hard for me to distinguish them underwater.

 

[dannobee]

Lobos Rocks is the place to see them up here. They will literally jump off the rock and greet you at the boat as soon as you drop anchor.

Ocean Futures has plenty of stock footage they could have used to put this together along with anything they've shot specifically for the episode. I just "chatted" with Dr. Richard "Murph" Murphy, Cousteau's marine biologist, about the show but didn't ask specifically where the footage came from.

There are dive sites down here such as Anacapa Island and Santa Barbara Island where filming sea lions would be a snap. Don't know about up there. Harbor seals down here tend to be a bit more wary, but I've had plenty of close encounters with them over the years, including with one that played "football" with me and my dive buddy using a sea cucumber on a dive at Long Point (Catalina) back in 1971. It brought the sea cucumber up to us to initiate contact. Wish video had been accessible back then!

 

[Meredith78]

By that I meant no longer using plastic bags ever! Cloth grocery bags are way better anyhow.

Not to jump off the topic, but I'm truly curious -- how do you collect and dispose of your garbage without using plastic bags? I'd be happy to no longer use them for groceries, but in the apartment I live in, I need to use a garbage bag that I can seal up.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Great story about the seal!

It makes sense that a well-connected person like Cousteau would be able to have his pick of the lot for video presentations. But still, here in Monterey I haven't seen more than three harbor seals at once, and then it was only for a fleeting moment. They could have been sea lions as it's hard for me to distinguish them underwater.

The harbor seal is mostly seen at Mcabee beach. Almost always as I enter and place my fins, one will appear and sometimes startle me.

They are also found at Lovers point in the cove, they just sit around and hover and often come really close once you are in.

I had my first encounter with one that came right up behind me, while my buddy was shooting video of me, I was literally startled because he pointed right behind me, that there was something?

 

[rdjiv]

I have no doubt that they are everywhere, having heard many seal encounter reports at various dive sites. My personal experience has just been brief swim-bys, and very rarely at that. I must have seal repellant or something. You're lucky to have yours on video.

 

[PKHamrick]

Robin and I found several Harbor Seals underwater at McAbee Beach. They sandwich their fat little sausage bodies into the rocks and “hang-out”… We also found that they ambush the Sea Otters and try to steal their food! Great fun!!!