Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Upcoming local dives (call 310/652-4990 for more info and to register):
Wednesday, September 23 - Vets Park night dive
Sunday, October 4 (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE) - Avalon Underwater Park
Wednesday, October 7 - Vets Park night dive
Saturday, October 17 - Vets Park daytime dive
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2015 vacation trips:
October 21-26 - Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island trip #2 aboard the Nautilus Explorer [SOLD OUT]
December 1-13 - Red Sea Aggressor (southern route - includes snorkeling with dolphins) plus 2 days in Cairo [SOLD OUT]
Working on 2016 dates and destinations
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
107º in Needles Sunday and 32º overnight in Truckee. Go figure . . .
WONDERFUL DAY IN AVALON SATURDAY - We had a blast diving the Underwater Park on Saturday. It was also nice on a personal level because it's been a while since I've done a dive there. And while the kelp is still generally absent (but starting to come back in a few areas), the fish seem to be thriving. I was amazed at how many clouds of juvy fish there were, especially juvy Blacksmith. There must have been tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of them just about everywhere. We also ran into a nice school of Mackerel in the Pinnacles, there were juvy and yearling Garibaldi everywhere you looked, and adult Garibaldi and Kelp Bass (despite the lack of kelp) were everywhere. But the real treat for us was the spotting not once, not twice, but thrice of a fairly large Black Sea Bass. Water temp was generally in the mid-70s but there was a thermocline around 50 feet and that's the depth (and a bit deeper) where he was hanging out. We were also treated to a nice Bat Ray flyby as well. Visibility varied but generally was probably 60 feet or so early in the morning and maybe dropped to 40-50' by the end of the afternoon. The Park didn't feel crowded, but there was a steady procession of students going up and down the stairs throughout most of the day. (There were also dozens of snorkelers, more than I'd ever seen there before.) Many of the folks with us either hadn't been diving in a while or had new gear to try out and that's one great thing about the Park because with the ease of access, it gives you (certainly from a teaching standpoint) a lot of flexibility in dealing with issues, or running back to get more weight, or whatever.
TWO THINGS THAT WERE DIFFERENT - Those would be the lunch choices and the bathrooms. They had started working on redoing the bathrooms in the lower level of the Casino many months ago. I don't know where they are in that process but both the men's and the women's are padlocked. However, they've got five porta-potties a few steps from the top of the stairs and, IMHO, that's actually better. Not only closer, but five unisex choices were better than the previous variations I think. The other surprise was that the fuel dock restaurant where we normally have lunch was not only closed but never opened this season at all. I was told there was some sort of a ruptured pipeline which dates back to the December storms and they're not yet able to get it fixed. So instead we just walked into town and had lunch at Coney Island which was equally delightful.
NEXT AVALON TRIP - I had scheduled it for Saturday, October 3 but have to delay it one day so it'll be Sunday, October 4. We'll again leave out of San Pedro but this time on a 9AM boat, and return on the 5:15PM from Avalon. Still the same general plan of three dives. Be aware that this is Opening Weekend for lobster season and my thought is that the Park will be LESS crowded (obviously you can't take lobster there because it's an MPA) since many instructors may take the weekend off to participate bug season. Give me a call at 310/652-4990 if you want to sign up.
LESSON LEARNED - One issue we had was with a prescription mask for one of our divers. It was filling up almost immediately no matter what he did and upon closer inspection, we realized that the glued seal that held the skirt to the glass had become broken in the upper left corner. Unfortunately it was not only a problem we couldn't fix, but it was a prescription mask so even though we had a spare mask with us, it wasn't going to do him any good. So the lesson here, especially on prescription masks, is to really check them over thoroughly and check the seal periodically. In his case, he hadn't been diving in a year and it's certainly possible that if the mask has been left somewhere where it could have been exposed to some heat, that could have caused the problem. Or it could just be age, or a combination of the two. But the point is that sometimes we don't think of these types of things as something that could fail and even though it's a "little" problem, it had a bigger impact on him in terms of diving for the day (as in, he couldn't).
KILLING CROWN-OF-THORNS WITH ROBOTS - They're working on an aquatic robot over in Australia to hunt down Crown-of-Thorns and inject them with a salt solution to kill it. Interesting concept to say the least. Thanks to John Morgan for sending over this link: Robotic killer being trialled to rid Great Barrier Reef of crown-of-thorns starfish | Environment | The Guardian.
BAD NEWS FOR OCEANS - The World Wildlife Fund has released its "Living Blue Planet Report of 2015" and the news is not good. They track over 1200 species in the ocean and the estimate is that populations are roughly half of what they were in 1970. On top of that, marine habitats are declining and in particular mangrove "deforestation" has a loss rate of 3-5 times that of tree-populated forests. You can download a free copy of the entire 72-page report here: https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/living-blue-planet-report-2015.
GOOD NEWS FOR WHALES & DOLPHINS - On the brighter side, there's a victory to be had for whales & dolphins as a federal court has ordered the U.S. Navy to limit and change the way they test sonar and explosives in the Pacific. You can read more about this here: Whales to gain 'long-sought protections' as navy limits sonar use, activists say | US news | The Guardian.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
Upcoming local dives (call 310/652-4990 for more info and to register):
Wednesday, September 23 - Vets Park night dive
Sunday, October 4 (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE) - Avalon Underwater Park
Wednesday, October 7 - Vets Park night dive
Saturday, October 17 - Vets Park daytime dive
Want to travel??? Upcoming 2015 vacation trips:
October 21-26 - Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island trip #2 aboard the Nautilus Explorer [SOLD OUT]
December 1-13 - Red Sea Aggressor (southern route - includes snorkeling with dolphins) plus 2 days in Cairo [SOLD OUT]
Working on 2016 dates and destinations
GET MORE INFO ON ALL OF OUR VACATION TRIPS HERE: www.reefseekers.com/foreign_trips.html
107º in Needles Sunday and 32º overnight in Truckee. Go figure . . .
WONDERFUL DAY IN AVALON SATURDAY - We had a blast diving the Underwater Park on Saturday. It was also nice on a personal level because it's been a while since I've done a dive there. And while the kelp is still generally absent (but starting to come back in a few areas), the fish seem to be thriving. I was amazed at how many clouds of juvy fish there were, especially juvy Blacksmith. There must have been tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of them just about everywhere. We also ran into a nice school of Mackerel in the Pinnacles, there were juvy and yearling Garibaldi everywhere you looked, and adult Garibaldi and Kelp Bass (despite the lack of kelp) were everywhere. But the real treat for us was the spotting not once, not twice, but thrice of a fairly large Black Sea Bass. Water temp was generally in the mid-70s but there was a thermocline around 50 feet and that's the depth (and a bit deeper) where he was hanging out. We were also treated to a nice Bat Ray flyby as well. Visibility varied but generally was probably 60 feet or so early in the morning and maybe dropped to 40-50' by the end of the afternoon. The Park didn't feel crowded, but there was a steady procession of students going up and down the stairs throughout most of the day. (There were also dozens of snorkelers, more than I'd ever seen there before.) Many of the folks with us either hadn't been diving in a while or had new gear to try out and that's one great thing about the Park because with the ease of access, it gives you (certainly from a teaching standpoint) a lot of flexibility in dealing with issues, or running back to get more weight, or whatever.
TWO THINGS THAT WERE DIFFERENT - Those would be the lunch choices and the bathrooms. They had started working on redoing the bathrooms in the lower level of the Casino many months ago. I don't know where they are in that process but both the men's and the women's are padlocked. However, they've got five porta-potties a few steps from the top of the stairs and, IMHO, that's actually better. Not only closer, but five unisex choices were better than the previous variations I think. The other surprise was that the fuel dock restaurant where we normally have lunch was not only closed but never opened this season at all. I was told there was some sort of a ruptured pipeline which dates back to the December storms and they're not yet able to get it fixed. So instead we just walked into town and had lunch at Coney Island which was equally delightful.
NEXT AVALON TRIP - I had scheduled it for Saturday, October 3 but have to delay it one day so it'll be Sunday, October 4. We'll again leave out of San Pedro but this time on a 9AM boat, and return on the 5:15PM from Avalon. Still the same general plan of three dives. Be aware that this is Opening Weekend for lobster season and my thought is that the Park will be LESS crowded (obviously you can't take lobster there because it's an MPA) since many instructors may take the weekend off to participate bug season. Give me a call at 310/652-4990 if you want to sign up.
LESSON LEARNED - One issue we had was with a prescription mask for one of our divers. It was filling up almost immediately no matter what he did and upon closer inspection, we realized that the glued seal that held the skirt to the glass had become broken in the upper left corner. Unfortunately it was not only a problem we couldn't fix, but it was a prescription mask so even though we had a spare mask with us, it wasn't going to do him any good. So the lesson here, especially on prescription masks, is to really check them over thoroughly and check the seal periodically. In his case, he hadn't been diving in a year and it's certainly possible that if the mask has been left somewhere where it could have been exposed to some heat, that could have caused the problem. Or it could just be age, or a combination of the two. But the point is that sometimes we don't think of these types of things as something that could fail and even though it's a "little" problem, it had a bigger impact on him in terms of diving for the day (as in, he couldn't).
KILLING CROWN-OF-THORNS WITH ROBOTS - They're working on an aquatic robot over in Australia to hunt down Crown-of-Thorns and inject them with a salt solution to kill it. Interesting concept to say the least. Thanks to John Morgan for sending over this link: Robotic killer being trialled to rid Great Barrier Reef of crown-of-thorns starfish | Environment | The Guardian.
BAD NEWS FOR OCEANS - The World Wildlife Fund has released its "Living Blue Planet Report of 2015" and the news is not good. They track over 1200 species in the ocean and the estimate is that populations are roughly half of what they were in 1970. On top of that, marine habitats are declining and in particular mangrove "deforestation" has a loss rate of 3-5 times that of tree-populated forests. You can download a free copy of the entire 72-page report here: https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/living-blue-planet-report-2015.
GOOD NEWS FOR WHALES & DOLPHINS - On the brighter side, there's a victory to be had for whales & dolphins as a federal court has ordered the U.S. Navy to limit and change the way they test sonar and explosives in the Pacific. You can read more about this here: Whales to gain 'long-sought protections' as navy limits sonar use, activists say | US news | The Guardian.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
