Venice Beach Conditions

[michaelb51]

Still bad air in the breeze..

Whale smell traced to origin...

If you can see it, the white speck on the horizon below was the dive boat, and it was moving around...

 

[K Mejean]

Wow there was none of that on Wed. No bad smell and no dead fish. I saw one crab that was dead and it was at 18 feet deep. It was still in tact so I figured it was from the red tide but that was it. I hate to see it that way. I am glad I got a good dive in though.

 

[michaelb51]

Wow there was none of that on Wed. No bad smell and no dead fish. I saw one crab that was dead and it was at 18 feet deep. It was still in tact so I figured it was from the red tide but that was it. I hate to see it that way. I am glad I got a good dive in though.

I wouldn't interpret this as too bad. In fact, I think there's evidence that for the last 8 weeks or so we've had varying degrees of red tide blooms floating around just offshore. Dependent upon wind and current, we get alternate days of clear and not-so-clear. It can blow up in less than a day, and it can blow away just as quickly.

On the good news front, we're being told to expect NE winds for about a week. That's better than any flavor of westerly.

But in the end, you can only predict red tide effects as far as the nose can see. Lately, if you try to plan beyond today you are as likely to miss good conditions as confront bad ones.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Ok,
To keep everything compact, I posted the Venice Beach Conditions - October 2006 thread.

That should keep it fresh for the current month (when October hits).
---
Think about posting there as we move into October

 

[K Mejean]

I plan on diving there a lot more as my schedule permits. It's only an hour away and the cost of admission is just right. I'm sure I will be posting for October. Thanks for setting it up.

 

[2TH DIVR]

got out of work early, went out this afternoon to Service Club
the red tide was the worst I have seen lately
there was hundreds of dead and dieing fish of all types didn't see any thing swimming up right
the concentration was the thickest between the shore and sandbar
the vis was in the 3' range till the 20+' depths then it opened up to 15'
the wind was out of the NW
the red tide usually doesn't bother me but after a 2 hour dive my lips had a tingling sensation that lasted about a hour after
I also stunk and had a reddish brown film on me especially in my hair and beard
stained up a towel wiping off before rinsing
let's hope the wind changes direction and blows this out of here

got 2 megs, 2 nice makos, 2 big hemis, a horse tooth and the usual small stuff