Rain, rain go away . . .
HERE FOR A FEW DAYS - It's not going anywhere for a while. If the forecasts are correct, we should get fairly constant rain through Wednesday morning. The good news is that they seem to have backed off on the rainfall totals a bit so that should lessen flooding concerns. But even so, be careful. If you've got to go anywhere, allow some extra time due to the wet conditions. And as we advocated last week, be very careful if you're going through any standing water. (Cars are more buoyant than you would think.) There were some horrible pictures from Long Beach last week around Willow/Sepulveda that showed cars submerged almost to their rooftops or floating away.
BEACH DIVING ISSUES TOO - The surf has started picking up somewhat (at least as far as I can tell on the Redondo live cam) but the bigger issue once the storm passes will be the bacterial count in the water. We obviously get plenty of runoff during storms like this so if you've got a beach dive planned for next weekend, double-check to make sure it's considered safe to be in the water.
DEEP-WATER CORAL REEF DISCOVERED - Laurie Powers was the first one to alert me to this so thanks for that. And it's good news for coral reefs. Now before you don your Speedos to take a plunge, be aware that these new reefs are anywhere from 600-3,200 feet below the surface and the water temp is somewhat above freezing (which I've always thought would make it too cold for corals). But there's apparently a specific deep-water cold-water coral that thrives in these conditions and this new discovery is off of the U.S. southeastern seaboard. What's even better is that scientists had previously thought this was a dead, uninhabited region. You can read more about it here:
DEEP-WATER CORAL REEF.
NITROX CLASS REMINDER - No better way to chase away those rainy day blues that with the yellow-and-green of a NAUI Nitrox class. We postponed last week's class to this Wednesday (via Zoom) and have room for you. This can also be done as sort of a refresher even if you're already nitrox-certified but want to brush up on the whys and wherefores of nitrox. Call us at 310/652-4990 to get signed up.
IS SoCAL A GREAT WHITE MATERNITY WARD? - For many years, researchers have assumed that Great Whites give birth somewhere around here because a lot of smaller - its a relative term - Great Whites are spotted in SoCal waters. But now there may actually be proof that this is the birthing territory as a wildlife photographer has captured some video of what's believed to be a just-born Great White off of the Santa Barbara area. You can read more about it (and see a pix) here:
BABY GWS.
CHAMBER DAY FLEET TAKING SHAPE - We're already in the throes of prepping for Chamber Day/Eve 2024 on May 1 and have been getting stores and clubs to agree to host Ch-Eve tables, as well as getting boats to commit to taking all of you diving on Chamber Day itself. We should have close to 150 day slots available (as well as unlimited spots open on the Flying Dutchman) and as many as 350 seats for Chamber Eve. We'll go LIVE with signups starting March 1, so be on the lookout for that. The website will remain
www.chamberday.org .
GOOD NEWS FROM FLORIDA - It seems there might be a manatee revival going on, and that's certainly a nice counterpart to the assault Florida coral reefs suffered this year. Blue Springs State Park, which is about 35 miles north of Orlando, reported a record-breaking 932 manatees in their waters the other week. The bad news is that the reason they went there was likely that the nearby St. John's River fell to 58º, far too low for the manatees to survive. But the good news is that they were able to find their way into the warmer waters of the park. You can read more about this here:
FLORIDA MANATEES.
SEE FOR YOURSELF - Explore.org, which maintains live animal-oriented cameras all over the world (including seven in exhibits at the Aquarium of the Pacific, some eagle's nest cams on Catalina, one underwater at Anacapa, and a whole bunch more) has a free live above-water cam at Blue Springs as well. The camera's active during daylight hours in Florida (during off-hours, you'll see the word HIGHLIGHT in the upper left corner) so you can see the lounging manatees for yourself. Here's the link:
EXPLORE.ORG BLUE SPRINGS MANATEE CAM.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
