Hi everyone,
I know this is a day late, but better than never, right?
John and I decided to make a Tuesday Night Dive at Redondo Beach, Veteran's Park. Initially going in, the water was brown, minimal viz, if any. We entered through ankle slappers and made our way out . Instead of taking our typical Westernly heading, we decided on a South West heading instead for something different. Dropped down into ok viz, about 10 feet at best initially, right away spotting a Thornback Ray.
Love was in the air tonight...or in the water...numereous sand crabs were co-habitating. It was really fun watching them, some of them even skirted around launching themselves like a torpedo. Swimming along, we spotted a couple of large Sheep Crabs. At first, I thought they were co-habitating as well, however, they were perched ontop of a dead ray...feasting away. Other little crabs and Kellets Welk were attempting to get some tidings as well. Spotted more Sheep Crab as well as Decorator Crabs scampering about the bottom. As we got deeper, Viz improved to about 15'. Lots of Sea Pens flourishing on the sandy/ muddy bottom. Spotted many Sarcastic Fringe Heads hiding out in various shells. John actually found one out of his hiding spot, laying under a kelp frond. We gently removed the kelp frond to expose quite a large Fringe Head. I didn't know how pretty of a fish that they were. Missed photo op! Continuing on, I noticed two 'little eyes' staring up out of the mud. On closer observation, it was a small octopuss! I called John over to see, then I attempted to scoop him up in my hand. Then, all of a sudden, he pulled himself under the mud. I scooped up the mud, only to reveal a baby food jar. The small octopuss had pulled himself all the way inside the jar with his tentacles pressed all around the glass. John and I both bursted out laughing. I gently returned the small octo to the mud, and then John discovered something going across his glove. It was a baby Moray Eel, about 2-3" long!!! It was so tiny, but you could make out his head.
Going deeper into the canyon, we spotted a large octopuss in a half barrel; several Scorpion Fish; Sculpins of all shapes and sizes, babies too!!! Soooooooooo Cute!!! Oh, and then a really coooooool sighting...we observed a Lewis Moon Snail crossing over the mud going at a fairly rapid pace. There was a wee little critter, either an infant Kellet's Welk, or perhaps an infant Lewis Moon Snail, but in any case, the large Lewis Moon Snail that we were observing engulfed this little guy. Laying in the mud just a few inches from the Lewis Moon Snail was quite a large Halibut. Did not stirr with our presence.
The next cool thing we saw was a nudibranch that neither John or myself had seen before. It was light brown, with ivory markings. It's head was kind of shaped like a vaccuum cleaner, it had horns on it, then the body looked like as if it had a shell on top of it's elongated body. After spotting this nudi, we spotted several more of the same species, quite large ones too. This nudi is not on my ID chart, and I didn't have my camera with me to take a pic. Anyone???
Coming close to NDL at depth of 80 feet, we decided to turn around. Coming back up the Canyon, I spotted a Lizard Fish. I had never seen one of these in person before, so I was really excited to have spotted him. More Sarcastic Fringe Heads were out and about. We were also greeted by a baby lobster!
More and more critters were seen on our way back to shore. Exited without incident, still ankle slapper conditions.
Viz was not the best, but I have to say, that this had to have been one of my best dives to date! So much to see, and new stuff too! Can't wait to go back!!!
We both stand corrected. According to Bill (Aeon) - the grey smooth-hound and the common nurse shark look similar.
