The Pasley "HURRY HOME" May '07 Dive Reports

[HBDiveGirl]

The Spring '07 ReefCheck survey of Malaga Cove was well-begun, and over Half-done on Saturday morning, May 26, 2007.

DONE:
4 Core Transects (3 outer reef and 1 inner reef)
9 FOTs (6 outer reef Fish-Only Transects, and 3 inner reef FOTs)

Still TO DO:
2 Core Transects (#5 and #6, Inner reef).
3 FOTs (#16, #17, #18, Inner reef)

It was a beautiful morning for diving, both above and below sea-level.

Who: Craig (with coffee and bagels/cc,) Ted S., John M., Tevis, Chris K. (shore support and encouragment,) and Claudette (aka 'me')

Conditions: Perfect: High grey skies, flat glassy sea, 3.0 tide. We saw the #1 indicator of good diving conditions: Gloomy, quiet surfers looking resigned to a boring day. Surf was about 6 to 10 inches.

We could see the rocks through the water as we walked along the shore. Plenty of kelp visible in the cove: it's regrown strongly since last fall.

We did the RockDance over the pumpkin-patch entry zone at the swim-club building. Surface finning out to the outer edge of the kelp, we could see the bottom most of the way. The teams departed for their assigned areas and Tevis and I descended into about 20-foot visibility. Malaga Cove is very, very pretty when you can see this much structure and kelp all at once. Kellet's Whelks are laying eggs like crazy, Garibaldis swarmed us (hoping for urchins, I think... but were came to count, not crush

), and rock wrasse of all ages and sizes zipped chaotically about.

Survey tasks completed, we dived back toward shore, and right over 2 horn sharks sleeping in the 9 fsw shallows. Each was a bit longer than a meter, and appeared completely undisturbed by our bubbling shadows.

We strode powerfully out from the sea

...

Would you believe we hopped athletically over the rocks to the tide line?

...

Ok, ok,.. we stumbled

,
crawled

,
stood up again

,
side-stepped

,
and basically did the rock-dance in reverse

to get out over the slime-covered boulders.

Chris met us in the parking lot with multicolored Gatorade refreshment ("WHAT is your favorite COLOR??!?!" I was hoping Tim the Enchanter was having a good day....

) Chris came all the way over here to cheer us on. Thanks!!!!

Second dive: Tide was now low, which extends the thigh-deep pumpkin patch half-way to the outer reef. I had the great idea of entering at the sand... which was brilliant... until a round-ray objected to our path choice and flipped a spiked tail right at John's foot. John would have gritted his way easily through the dive, except the ray hit him exactly where his fin pressed against the top of his foot. (If anyone wants to have a "I'm tougher than you" contest on a survey day... key strategy hint: Make sure John is not on the team. The NY DNA is crazy stuff... ya ain't gonna beat dem apples!) Thankfully, his foot didn't swell, and after exam and wound irrigation later at the doc's office, John said the pain stopped almost immediately.
So, Tevis and I went ahead to complete our survey tasks in somewhat worsening visibility (3 meters instead of the lovely 5 meters on the first dive) The highlight of our return was a Very close encounter with a magnificent Bat Ray, resting its 4 foot wing span on the sandy bottom in about 4 foot visibility. He was big, and by the time we saw each other he was VERY close. We stopped (well, Tevis perfected his back-kick and actually got full-reverse carrying him backwards several feet

)... and the ray settled from his wingtips back down to the sand. We watched each other in the gentle surge for about 3 minutes, nose to nose, until Mr. Ray did a Millenium Falcon lift-off and flew majestically away into the golden overhead mist. As we approached the shore, I remembered John's foot. I wish I had video of Tevis and I doing our very energetic moon-walk shuffles all the way to damp sand.

Weather had turned cold, with grey wind and a heavy marine layer, but we smilingly reconciled data sheets and stowed gear.

Still TO DO:
2 Core Transects (#5 and #6, Inner reef).
3 FOTs (#16, #17, #18, Inner reef)

Monday's team will be: Kathryn K., Laila, John M.

Make your diving count!

Thanks Craig, John, Ted, Chris and Tevis for a fun and successful survey day!

~~~~~~
Claudette

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Ross-O took Merry and me out to the Radio Tower off Pt. Fermin and then to Ross' secret wreck. During the first dive I lost the diffuser to my camera and my strobe flooded...again, but not before I got a lot of images.
Most of the metridiums were open today. I only found two nudibranchs, a Diulula sandiegenses and Triopha catalinae, but the color overwhelmed my senses so much that I wasn't looking at the small stuff.
Merry spotted a juvenile Sheephead and El Cabezon Grande. He was kind enough to pose for several shots. There were a few small rockfish near the bottom of the wreck, but surprisingly few fish for such a healthy offshore artificial reef. There are several nets and fishing line on the tower, which may explain where the fish have gone.
At the secret wreck we found so many piddock clam shells that Merry's shell bottle filled in minutes. Ross moved the toilet for a better shot. I was busy looking at a lobster and sheepcrabs. The conditions were very good for dives so close to shore. There was a dirty layer in mid-water, but vis on the tower was a good fifteen feet.

 

[PhotoTJ]

Went out to one of the rigs today, great day for it, viz was maybe 30' down to 50', then it opened up, at 100' you could see compleatly across the rig. The day started great, but then my dry suit leaked, my new speargun fell over the side, and the engine broke on the boat, so it fell down to just a good day of diving.

No pix; scallops, rockfish, sheephead in the freezer.


Bottom line: Had a blast!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

After a wonderful day of boat diving with Ross, Merry and I headed to Marineland this morning for a dip in the pool with Evil Jeff Shaw. The Point looked a little too rough so we decided to enter from the cove. Once in the water our plans changed and we headed to the 120 Reef due to the red tide. If I stretched out my arm I couldn't see my hands.
When we hit the bottom I was happy to find 3-6 feet of murky vis. We headed south until hitting the sand, then made our way back into the next cove. We surfaced, checked our location and decided to swim under the kelp back to Cobble Beach. There was quite a bit of surge and near zero vis but we all arrived at our exit point together.
Along the way, we found a Mexichromis porterae, Cuthona divae including eggs, two Sunstars, blennies, a Zebra goby, Christmas Tree worms, hydroids and Vancouver phoronids everywhere and even a Garibaldi. I declined the photo op. I did manage to shoot a feather duster worm from the underside for the first time.

 

[Scott T]

Hey All,
I'm heading out to Vets for the first time tonight. My buddy may or may not make it, but he assures me that the regulars will notice newbies and that I should get hooked up for a dive or two. Is this pretty much the culture there?

Thanks,

Scott T