Some of them surfaced about ten feet from us. Unfortunately the surface vis was a foot or so. 
SoCal Dive Reports - Let us know about your dive!
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paradicio
Contributor
Dive Site: Avalon Dive Park
Date: 04/05 – 04/06/2008
Conditions: Slight surge close to the rocks, low tide in the afternoons.
Water Temp: 57 – 58F
Visibility: 10 – 15 feet
Dive Buddys: Wife, Cousin, Instructor, and DM
Comments:
Taking U/W Photog, and AWARE / Fish ID Classes
If only every trip to the park could be like this past weekend! We got in a night dive and caught sight of a Nurse Shark, a couple of Horn Sharks, and a Swell Shark (I didn’t get to see the Swell Shark, but my Instructor and the others did…
. Unfortunately all the Sharks were there and gone so fast I didn’t get to catch any on camera. 
All in all we got to see quite a few critters that we do not normally see out in the park (maybe we just haven’t been paying attention!). I’m not the best at writing these up, so I’ll let the pictures say the rest…
Date: 04/05 – 04/06/2008
Conditions: Slight surge close to the rocks, low tide in the afternoons.
Water Temp: 57 – 58F
Visibility: 10 – 15 feet
Dive Buddys: Wife, Cousin, Instructor, and DM
Comments:
Taking U/W Photog, and AWARE / Fish ID Classes
If only every trip to the park could be like this past weekend! We got in a night dive and caught sight of a Nurse Shark, a couple of Horn Sharks, and a Swell Shark (I didn’t get to see the Swell Shark, but my Instructor and the others did…
. Unfortunately all the Sharks were there and gone so fast I didn’t get to catch any on camera. All in all we got to see quite a few critters that we do not normally see out in the park (maybe we just haven’t been paying attention!). I’m not the best at writing these up, so I’ll let the pictures say the rest…
Did anyone get a picture of the nurse shark? That would be so cool to see. They are rare north of Cabo San Lucas. Maybe the water is about to warm up.
paradicio
Contributor
I wish! No, I was the only one taking pictures on the night dive.
Merry and I planned an early morning dive at Redondo Canyon to look for Tritonia diomedea nudibranchs that have been reported lately. We dropped into 86 feet and headed down to 120. We found their food source, sea pens but no nudis in sight. As we headed back uphill Merry spotted two California sea slugs, Pleurobranchaea californica munching away. The visibility here wasn't great but I managed one shot without too much backscatter.
A few minutes later Merry found Spotted Triopha
Triopha maculata. We then spotted a Monterey dorid, Archidoris montereyensis at the same time. At least I found one thing with my own eyes.
Visibility in the shallows was good, as was the canyon with fifteen feet in 53F water.
Triopha maculata
Pleurobranchaea californica
Archidoris montereyensis
A few minutes later Merry found Spotted Triopha
Triopha maculata. We then spotted a Monterey dorid, Archidoris montereyensis at the same time. At least I found one thing with my own eyes.
Visibility in the shallows was good, as was the canyon with fifteen feet in 53F water.
Triopha maculata
Pleurobranchaea californica
Here is a dive report from today that I sent to OCDivingNews and ladiving:
Went out on the Good King Neptune today for three dives. We started out at the pinnacle at Little Farnsworth. I was getting my gloves out of the fin pocket when something bit me. I shook the gloves and there was a 5-6" centipede! It must have crawled into my dive bag and into the fin pocket during the last week when I was not diving. I decided to serve it to the fish... possibly bad karma.
On the first dive my Dive Rite Nitek Duo continued its independent ways. Last weekend it reset my gas mix to 50% O2. According to it, I was dead on the first dive from ox tox. Fortunately my Scubapro Tec 2G indicated there was still life left in me so I wasn't too worried. This time the Nitek Duo immediately went into gauge mode without any input from me. I don't use that computer in gauge mode. Go figure? Centipede karma?
Descending the anchor line I didn't find the pinnacle. Usually the chain is draped over the pinnacle, but this time it just rested in the sand. I went in the direction I thought it should be, but no luck. After reaching 90+ ft, I doubled back and found that the anchor was not too far from the base of pinnacle, but it had apparently been obscured by the sand resuspended when the anchor and chain landed. Vis was 15 ft near the surface and around 30 at the base.
Second dive was Hen Rock. Reasonable vis over the sandy areas at 40-50 ft, but the inner reef was full of surge-suspended sand and only yielded 15 ft. Captain Bob decided to stay at the site for a second dive because the paying customers liked it. I always find it interesting that many of them do!
On the third dive I dove deeper (75 ft) to the outer reef. I hadn't visited it in some time. I was rewarded. As I approached it, I saw two sheep crabs slowly approaching one another at 60 ft. From their size I thought one might be female and I could film the amorous male doing "the wild thing." I started filming and couldn't really see what was happening in the monitor. When I reviewed the footage tonight, the larger one (male) picked up speed as he approached "her," used his eight legs and two claws to trap the smaller "female." Then he broke loose and walked off. I already knew why since I checked underwater... they were both males. A case of nearly mistaken identity.
On the outer reef I was pleased to find yellow zoanthids (Parazoanthus) parasitizing golden gorgonians. They had killed about half of the gorgonian colony, starting at the base. When I filmed, it looked like two different species of gorgonians on the same "skeleton."
Then I saw IT. No, not Jaws... visibility wasn't that good. There was a very large noble (10") dorid (Peltadoris nobilis) nudibranch munching away on an orange sponge. I've filmed this before but wasn't happy with the results. As I filmed, I noticed there was a tiny (< 2") P. nobilis munching away alongside... hopefully too young (small) to mate with Giganto.
So it was a good day of diving. Got a mild sunburn during my surface intervals. Depths/temps at the three sites were 93/54, 55/55 and 76/53.
Went out on the Good King Neptune today for three dives. We started out at the pinnacle at Little Farnsworth. I was getting my gloves out of the fin pocket when something bit me. I shook the gloves and there was a 5-6" centipede! It must have crawled into my dive bag and into the fin pocket during the last week when I was not diving. I decided to serve it to the fish... possibly bad karma.
On the first dive my Dive Rite Nitek Duo continued its independent ways. Last weekend it reset my gas mix to 50% O2. According to it, I was dead on the first dive from ox tox. Fortunately my Scubapro Tec 2G indicated there was still life left in me so I wasn't too worried. This time the Nitek Duo immediately went into gauge mode without any input from me. I don't use that computer in gauge mode. Go figure? Centipede karma?
Descending the anchor line I didn't find the pinnacle. Usually the chain is draped over the pinnacle, but this time it just rested in the sand. I went in the direction I thought it should be, but no luck. After reaching 90+ ft, I doubled back and found that the anchor was not too far from the base of pinnacle, but it had apparently been obscured by the sand resuspended when the anchor and chain landed. Vis was 15 ft near the surface and around 30 at the base.
Second dive was Hen Rock. Reasonable vis over the sandy areas at 40-50 ft, but the inner reef was full of surge-suspended sand and only yielded 15 ft. Captain Bob decided to stay at the site for a second dive because the paying customers liked it. I always find it interesting that many of them do!
On the third dive I dove deeper (75 ft) to the outer reef. I hadn't visited it in some time. I was rewarded. As I approached it, I saw two sheep crabs slowly approaching one another at 60 ft. From their size I thought one might be female and I could film the amorous male doing "the wild thing." I started filming and couldn't really see what was happening in the monitor. When I reviewed the footage tonight, the larger one (male) picked up speed as he approached "her," used his eight legs and two claws to trap the smaller "female." Then he broke loose and walked off. I already knew why since I checked underwater... they were both males. A case of nearly mistaken identity.
On the outer reef I was pleased to find yellow zoanthids (Parazoanthus) parasitizing golden gorgonians. They had killed about half of the gorgonian colony, starting at the base. When I filmed, it looked like two different species of gorgonians on the same "skeleton."
Then I saw IT. No, not Jaws... visibility wasn't that good. There was a very large noble (10") dorid (Peltadoris nobilis) nudibranch munching away on an orange sponge. I've filmed this before but wasn't happy with the results. As I filmed, I noticed there was a tiny (< 2") P. nobilis munching away alongside... hopefully too young (small) to mate with Giganto.
So it was a good day of diving. Got a mild sunburn during my surface intervals. Depths/temps at the three sites were 93/54, 55/55 and 76/53.
I would be quite surprised if it was a nurse shark. I've never seen one in our waters even during intense El Ninos and other warm water events. However, I've never seen a tiger shark here either and there was a verified sighting of two of them a few years ago at Hen Rock.
Beachlover
Guest
Hello Dr.Bill, how many years have you been diving at Catalina? Just curious.Thank you and good diving to you!
Papa_Bear
Contributor
He discovered it! 
Now, Papa_bear, I ain't THAT old! Beachlover, I came out to Catalina to teach marine biology on SCUBA at a private high school back in 1969. That makes 39 years although they haven't all been as intense as this decade... I actually had desk jobs during some of that time.
Now back to the dive reports...
Now back to the dive reports...
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