FrankPro1
Contributor
Since Thursday, conditions have been deteriorating in Laguna and brown water with swell has been plaguing the peninsula. I have been wanting for a long time to photograph Sarcastic Fringeheads, so with poor conditions elsewhere Veteran's park was an ideal site to get wet. There were plenty of divers gearing down in the parking lot by the time we got there and most reported decent visibility at depth. Pushing through the 2-3ft surf was easy and there was no giant "step" present in the surf zone. The plan was to hover between 45-60ft in the "Salad Bowl" area and look for interesting critters. After the first few minutes we hadn't found any Fringeheads, so we decided to drop further down the canyon to around 75-80ft. Even less life was found at these depths, so we ventured back up the canyon. Charlie found our first Pleurobranchaea californica and shortly after I found another individual, but he was at least 4 times larger. I didn't know they got that big! He was the size of a softball! Lots of crabs, lizard fish, sand dabs, sea stars and turbots were hanging about, but no Sarcastic Fringeheads. Other highlights included two rockfish juveniles no more then two inches long hiding in a strand of feather boa kelp, an unidentified adult rockfish with dark blue colorations, and two octopus hiding in metal piping. My #2 strobe is still at Ikelite's repair facility, so photography was limited to a one strobe / focus light combo. With the sandy suspended particles, many of my shots were unremarkable. Here are the few which survived the tossed salad:
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Want to do a bit more research before purchasing. Thanks for the compliment though. I just zoomed in, rather then approaching close. It seems like everything is skittish at Vets.
