Ken and I dived the Egg Carpeting again last night, from 8 to 9PM.
Splendid.
I can't get enough! This is the 10th time I've dived this in the 14 days since we were first surrounded by mating squid.
The egg carpet is thick... I mean CRAZY THICK!
Shake-yer-head-and-gesture-helplessly THICK.
No-accurate-words-can-tell THICK.
Even pictures cannot take you there.
Big individual baskets begin at 65fsw, and get bigger as you go deeper. Soon, the baskets are thick and adjacent, then they form a solid ground covering.
From 80 to 105, it's nearly seamless egg masses in a broad swath. Almost all are still glowing white in the reflection of our lights. Below 105, the swath seems to narrow a bit, but the density continues to be shocking.... and beautiful.
We reached our deepest point at 131fsw, and paused, gazing downwards.
The eggs continued unabated for as far as we could see... perhaps another 20 feet down the gentle slope. Wow.
Life is sporadic across the carpet:
- Big sheep crabs on the mud next to the eggs, the males leaping up at us, claws clacking together in their berserker rage at the invaders.
- Yellow/Red rock crabs nestled in amidst the eggs, feeding appendages whirring.
- Tiny spidery crabs, 1-inch across, clutching onto individual egg cases
- Bat rays resting on the eggs, on the mud, digging into the mud, flying lazily around our heads, and bursting upwards and away when startled.
- Bay pipefish!!! Always a shallow-water delight at Vets, two of these skinny cuties were hovering amidst the eggs at 102fsw last night!
- poacher fish, buried under an egg mass, snout peeking out from beneath the shag.
- Pink scorpion fish, resting motionless on top of the eggs, awaiting sashimi snackage to swim by.
- Sarcastic Fringeheads in bottles and wavy turban shells, staring out and the crazy white carpeting that got installed all around them 2 weeks ago. "W..T..Eff?!?!?!? Who ordered this?!?! It's gonna really show the dirt!"
- Juvenile midshipman, hanging motionless in the water column, 12 inches off the bottom. When startled, they drop like cartoon characters, suddenly realizing they've run out of cliff-top!! Whooomphfff...To the bottom! They usually wriggle into the mud, leaving only eyes and mouth exposed. It's funny when they drop onto the egg carpeting, and just freeze, in full view.
- Juvenile ocean whitefish, 1 inch off the muddy bottom between the egg patches.
- Baby Giant Black Seabass! A pair of 1-1/2 inch cuties, zig-zagging amidst the eggs, in the Spaz-dance they do so well.
- Thornback ray, 2-feet long, wriggling across the shap carpeting, the edges of its wings curling and extending, almost caressing the eggs as it swam slowly across.
- Squid. One is a lonely number. Talk about missing the party. We saw a half-sized teenager squid Monday night. I wanted to card him: "Do your parents know where you are? You are too young for this, sonny!"
It's a wonderful show that's come
up into town from the awesome depths.
Come on and dive it if you haven't yet.
You'll enjoy it best if you keep your fins up off the bottom. Last night, a large area at 65fsw was
completely silted out in brown-water-zero-viz. Ken and I looked around eagerly, expecting a monster-sized bat ray.... only to find a complete cluster-party of several divers smashing their fins against the muddy bottom as they moved along the edge of the egg baskets.
Please, hover and appreciate. It's wonderful and it's delicate. It's a nursery, and we are visitors.... Shhhh.....
In a few weeks, it'll vanish like a dream circus, and we'll be wondering if what we saw and felt really happened.
~~~~~
Claudette
