Spring has sprung, Fall has fell. It's the month of October and hotter than usual.

[MaxBottomtime]

Santana winds have been blowing for the past few days. Normally that is great news for south facing beaches in Southern California. We headed for the south side of Palos Verdes this morning but the wind was blowing hard off Marineland. We turned around and found slightly calmer conditions at Honeymoon Cove.
I decided to finally check out the area we call Merry's Reef. It's similar to the rocky reef off Resort Point but there were more nudibranchs and anemones here. Merry found two White Spotted Rose anemones, Urticina lofotensis. I have never seen them near the mainland. They are common in the Channel Islands and Farnsworth Bank.
By the end of the dive the surface was calm and visibility had greatly improved. The water was 63°, about ten degrees warmer than we're used to here. Tomorrow is predicted to be nicer, so we'll try again.

Octocoral, Alcyonium rudyi

Christmas Tree worm

California scorpionfish, Scorpaena guttata

Yellowfin fringehead, Neoclinus stephensae

Polycera tricolor

Cuthona divae

San Diego dorids on a sponge

Flabellina trilineata trying to outrun a Mexichromis porterae

Cadlina limbaughorum

Cadlina luteomarginata

Triopha catalinae

 

[gert7to3]

Nice photos, what a variety of nudies.

What's your u/w camera system?

Also, you said that 63 F was about ten degrees warmer than usual. So typical SoCal temps are in the low 50's, even this time of year?

I'll be in San Diego Oct 18th, just anticipating what to bring.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I use a Nikon D700 with Ikelite DS-160 strobes. Palos Verdes temperatures rarely get into the 60s, but San Diego and Laguna Beach can reach the low 70s during the summer and early fall. It's usually comfortable in SD this time of year, but thermoclines occur that can drop temperatures into the low 50s and even high 40s at depth.

 

[drbill]

Hey, Phil... Sept and October can have some of our hottest days of the year! Sure glad the Santa Anas didn't reach out far enough to ruin our diving here on the island, although many classes were postponed at the dive park and a local dive boat went to the backside to dive in the shelter of the normally "windward" side.

Is your picture suggesting Mexichromis porterae eats other nudibranchs? If so, I wasn't aware of that (but I didn't know what they eat).

 

[MaxBottomtime]

It was just a day at the races. Nudibranch races are the most exciting twelve hours in sports.

 

[gert7to3]

Thanks for the temperature information. From my perspective, Chicago/Lake Michigan, SoCal sort of looks like one area.

As to temperatures, we had a laugh once when a North Carolina wreck diver very seriously said that where he dove, you could hit the thermocline and be in 52 degree water. To Great Lakes wreck divers 52 degrees is the warm water above the thermocline.