Should have stayed close to home

[MaxBottomtime]

Merry and I braved the swells and dirty green water yesterday in search of diveable conditions. Instead, we wasted fourteen gallons of gas and most of the day without getting in the water. I needed to get in some practice shooting macro with my camera, so today I got in the dirty marina water and tried for some shots on a dock piling. I had pretty good results, despite the dirty water. I can't wait to dive on an actual reef again. Maybe conditions will improve next week...

 

[FrankPro1]

Love the 2nd Janolus. Very crisp and detailed. Those lighter colored pigments are very easy to blow out with your strobes. You found him on a pier piling! I have still yet to find one. Not only did I miss out diving the barge with you and Merry this week, but I've spent the last five days working double shifts while dealing with insidious upper respiratory issues. So I take it you never made it back to the UB88?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Casey never called, so we dived the barge instead. There was so much particulate matter in the water that I couldn't focus the video camera on the sea lions. It's too bad. One of them sat in the large cutout scratching his neck on the rusty metal for more than a minute.
I was hoping to get in several dives this week, but conditions prevented me from getting in...again! Looks like rain and large surf forecast this weekend.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

You found him on a pier piling! I have still yet to find one.

The one place I've found them on numerous occasions is at the Cabrillo boat launch. Beginning around March, they and several of their cousins appear on the kelp fronds floating next to the dock. We see more of them at night, especially the Lion nudis. Look for eggs and anything colorful on the kelp. Some of the nudis are tiny, so take a light and look very closely on both sides of each frond.

 

[FrankPro1]

The one place I've found them on numerous occasions is at the Cabrillo boat launch. Beginning around March, they and several of their cousins appear on the kelp fronds floating next to the dock.

I remember you mentioning this when you took Charlie and I to WPR. Once the weather clears up I'll have to go one night and check them out. Its surprising with the poor water quality of the harbor that the nudi's are still able to be found.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Sometimes you have to pick the kelp out of the water because the vis is zero, even at the surface.

How to spot the nudis.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwater-photography/216732-morro-bay-1-11-a.html#post3323629

 

[FrankPro1]

Lions, Janolus and Ancula's. Oh my. Three nudi's I've never encountered. Have you ever seen the typical So Cal nudi's there? Ex: Shawls, Dorids, Hermis... Are Lions more prone to live on kelp v.s. reef? Seems to me a lot of the shots I've seen of Lions from down south were on fronds.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Nudis are back at Cabrillo boat launch!!!
I've only seen them on the tops of kelp. I took a couple of buckets full of Melibe and their eggs and transplanted them onto the kelp near shore at Long Point. I was never able to get back in there for a few months because of the conditions. I should go free diving there some day soon and look for them.

 

[drbill]

Way back in the early 70s I was sampling drifting kelp "rafts" for a scientific research project and on one raft we pulled in there were literally thousands of Melibe leonina (lion nudibranchs) with many of them... ah, er... engaged in a form of "congress" (this is NOT The Pub!).

Nice images Phil.