Thanks!!!!!!!

[Peter_C]

Yes it was another fun day of diving. Thanks to Michelle for driving and being my dive buddy, along with Matt for putting up with drills that are routine on most every dive for me. LOL

The dive conditions were far superior compared to the reports coming back from the North Coast with 1-3 foot vis max.

Brandon either swimming out or my calls must have worked because the dolphins at least came somewhat closer

 

[dwashbur]

Dave, your night dive sounds amazing. I can't wait to see the pics.

Ask, and you shall receive. Here's my favorite picture of the shark:

There are lots more on the photobucket page, which I'll link in a moment. But I just have to share the Catalina conger. When we spotted him he was just sitting out on the sand, like this, and stayed there for a relatively long time (for these guys):

But then he did what they apparently do best, and started burying himself tail-first in the sand:

Within seconds he had completely vanished. It's amazing how they do that.

We came upon several of those moon jellies, but rather than try to take a picture, I just drifted up next to one and studied it as it made its way through the water column. Absolutely beautiful. I also had another giant/rainbow nudibranch try to swim into my face, but I managed to keep my bubbles away from this one...

We have been here for pretty much the whole summer, and while every dive is good, this one was by far the highlight of our term here.

The rest of the pictures are at
dwashbur/Breakwater 8-17-08 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

I don't have them labeled yet, but you can figure most of them out either by looking or by the filenames. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed taking them.

 

[kmmkiwi]

I had a great time meeting and diving with everyone yesterday. Couldn't have asked for better diving on my birthday. Those moon jellies were an awesome treat! Sorry I had to split so fast after dive #2, had dinner plans to get to.

Here's my video from dive #1 at the metridium field.

YouTube - Birthday at Breakwater

Oh, and Michelle, awesome video footage of those jellies! I love it!

 

[micboucher]

Thanks Katherine! I hope you had a great B-day dinner too.

Great pics from your night dive Dave!

I didn't see any sharks on our wall dive but I did see my first Wolf Eel. It was just a little guy hiding in the rocks.

Here are my pics from the day. Breakwater 8-17-08 - a set on Flickr

 

[dhammer]

Great pics, Michelle! And, now that I can see it more clearly, that's definitely a monkeyface eel.

 

[dwashbur]

Yep, definitely a monkeyface. They're so cute it's silly. That looks like one that we've come across in the rocks before, just a youngster.

And I love the picture of the little bitty rainbow nudibranch going after that huge tube-dwelling anemone. Talk about high hopes!!!!!

 

[micboucher]

Thanks guys! That's my first sighting of a Monkeyface Eel too.

 

[Peter_C]

Thanks guys! That's my first sighting of a Monkeyface Eel too.

You need to do more night dives! I have seen way more at night then during the day. Of course using a flashlight to look into the cracks and crevices helps reveal a lot of life. My camera strobe has a target light that I use to shine into the darks holes to spot marine life. Until I started using a light on every dive I did not realize just how much I was missing.

 

[micboucher]

You need to do more night dives! I have seen way more at night then during the day. Of course using a flashlight to look into the cracks and crevices helps reveal a lot of life. My camera strobe has a target light that I use to shine into the darks holes to spot marine life. Until I started using a light on every dive I did not realize just how much I was missing.

Yeah, I'll probably be up for more night dives once I have my drysuit back. I just found out I won't have it back before next weekend, so I'll be diving wet again.

 

[micboucher]

And I love the picture of the little bitty rainbow nudibranch going after that huge tube-dwelling anemone. Talk about high hopes!!!!!

Yeah, I thought that was cute too!