We made it Los Coronado's Island on a beautiful and sunny morning. After the DM briefing we jumped into clear blue water, made a general dive plan and descended into the clear water. I gotta tell ya ... having good visibility after diving the storm ridden Shores was awesome! Visibility on the first dive was 40-50 feet, perhaps even more! The water was also more blue than the green waters we have at the Shores - which was good, but I had a GR filter on my video camera and not the CY filter I needed - live and learn! Because of this there is some overexposure which I didn't attempt to correct. Here are some highlights of the dives which I enjoyed especially:
1) When we first entered the water the Sea Lions were cautious and followed us from a short distance, all huddled up like rugby players. There's one shot where I'm taping Tanika swimming along when a lone sea lion swims by and around her. Tanika slowly turns around to see where the lone sea lion went only to find a large group of curious sea lions! The shot, in the video, pans behind her to reveal a scrum of sea lions, proabably organizing their 'buzz the diver' plans for the day
2) I observed, for the first time several "Senorita Cleaning Stations". Although it seems that the senoritas are benefiting from an easy meal, the Blacksmiths were very insistent that they get their cleaning. In the video, you can see that when a senorita attempts to leave the blacksmith congretation, the blacksmiths would chase and sequester the senorita into another round of cleaning!
4) There is also a short clip of a filter feeding crustacean. I couldn't tell what type of crustacean it was as it was between some rocks, but maybe someone know what this bug is? Sean got some good pictures of this critter which shows much more detail about the crustacean than my poor video.
5) There is also a cool segment of a sea lion playing with a stick! He literally plants himself on a rock a meter away from me and chews on a stick - he did this several times before finally leaving. Sean tried to play "fetch" with the sea lion but they seemed to have lost interest.
One of interesting behaviors of the sea lions was their initial guarded curiousity as they hung behind the divers, probably determining the danger level associated with our slow and clumsy movements underwater before allowing their curiosity to get the better of them. They quickly realized the lack of threat we posed and swam by frequently and closely. By the second dive, they showed very little apprehensive and was a little more aggresive in their play - I could easily feel that one was dive-bombing me as I could feel the water pulse through my hood! Never did see that fella! Sean also had one come very close to his head before veering off - I have this on video and I will put it up later. However, we never felt threatened by the sea lions during our dives. Anyway, hope you enjoy the video!
Here is the VIDEO! (48 MB)
1) When we first entered the water the Sea Lions were cautious and followed us from a short distance, all huddled up like rugby players. There's one shot where I'm taping Tanika swimming along when a lone sea lion swims by and around her. Tanika slowly turns around to see where the lone sea lion went only to find a large group of curious sea lions! The shot, in the video, pans behind her to reveal a scrum of sea lions, proabably organizing their 'buzz the diver' plans for the day
2) I observed, for the first time several "Senorita Cleaning Stations". Although it seems that the senoritas are benefiting from an easy meal, the Blacksmiths were very insistent that they get their cleaning. In the video, you can see that when a senorita attempts to leave the blacksmith congretation, the blacksmiths would chase and sequester the senorita into another round of cleaning!
4) There is also a short clip of a filter feeding crustacean. I couldn't tell what type of crustacean it was as it was between some rocks, but maybe someone know what this bug is? Sean got some good pictures of this critter which shows much more detail about the crustacean than my poor video.
5) There is also a cool segment of a sea lion playing with a stick! He literally plants himself on a rock a meter away from me and chews on a stick - he did this several times before finally leaving. Sean tried to play "fetch" with the sea lion but they seemed to have lost interest.
One of interesting behaviors of the sea lions was their initial guarded curiousity as they hung behind the divers, probably determining the danger level associated with our slow and clumsy movements underwater before allowing their curiosity to get the better of them. They quickly realized the lack of threat we posed and swam by frequently and closely. By the second dive, they showed very little apprehensive and was a little more aggresive in their play - I could easily feel that one was dive-bombing me as I could feel the water pulse through my hood! Never did see that fella! Sean also had one come very close to his head before veering off - I have this on video and I will put it up later. However, we never felt threatened by the sea lions during our dives. Anyway, hope you enjoy the video!
Here is the VIDEO! (48 MB)
(just kidding, but I thought about it). 
