Even Santa Barbara Island is hotter than heck

[fnfalman]

Warmest depth temp was 64-F and coldest was at 61-F. Surface temp is close to 70-F.

There were but a couple fronds of giant kelps and everything were just barren.

Very sad. I want my cold water back.

 

[SCUBA_Phil]

Last week, the first 40' at Catalina (Ship Rock) was 70F, but I did find some water at 51F.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

It's even warm for Palos Verdes standards. We had 57° on Saturday. It should cool off by next month. All the nudibranchs have been in hiding.

 

[Keith.M]

Pretty cool profile Phil.

It looks like you were in need of getting wet! Surface Interval = 84 days 18 hours...

Last week, the first 40' at Catalina (Ship Rock) was 70F, but I did find some water at 51F.

View attachment 194716

 

[drbill]

Back in the days when I was frequently diving to depths of 180-200 fsw I don't think I ever recorded a temperature less than 50 F (but had temps of 46 F as shallow as 70 fsw).

Just did another night dive last night. Although the surge from Simon tossed me about like a rag doll, I had a min temp of 75 F at a max depth of 56 fsw.

 

[Keith.M]

Back in the days when I was frequently diving to depths of 180-200 fsw I don't think I ever recorded a temperature less than 50 F (but had temps of 46 F as shallow as 70 fsw).

Just did another night dive last night. Although the surge from Simon tossed me about like a rag doll, I had a min temp of 75 F at a max depth of 56 fsw.

Wow. That seems pretty extreme.

I'll be coming down south the week of Thanksgiving with my son and plan to get some dives in.

I am kind of hoping the warm water holds a bit as I am fine with the cold but my son at 5'10" and 140 lbs. He just doesn't have the extra insulation to help keep him warm. I would like him to get some dives in where he is not real cold by the end.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Just saying...

Oceans Getting Hotter Than Anybody Realized | Climate Central

 

[drbill]

The unfortunate things about this warm water episode are many: large scale deterioration of giant kelp due to high temps and low nutrients (plus storm surge from hurricanes), die-offs of species like sea urchins, limited food supply for drift kelp feeders like abalone and sea urchins, increase in the frequency and strength of hurricanes further south affecting diving conditions up here, etc. The "good" things are greater visibility (due to poor nutrients limiting phytoplankton growth thus affecting plankton feeders as well), increases in appearance of normally southern species and reduction in number of dives I have to pee during.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We've had an unlikely occurrence at out local mudhole, Golf Ball Reef. The temperatures have warmed from a low of 48° in April to water as warm as 61° in October. In the past month Giant kelp has taken over the reef. In areas that were devoid of kelp in early September there are now stalks twenty to thirty feet tall. The fronds of some of the new kelp host bryozoans, hydroids, slugs and small crustaceans. The reef is composed of small rocks, few larger than a basketball. When the kelp forest was thin we would see several stalks floating their holdfasts a couple feet off the bottom. It is amazing that the kelp has thrived with the warmer water and high surf of the past few months.
We're fortunate to have colder, nutrient-filled water off Palos Verdes that supports a rich invertebrate ecosystem, but there are dives when we wish we had some of that 70°+ water Catalina has experienced this year.

 

[drbill]

Yep, in your chilly waters kelp would have a far better chance! The inflection point for temperature/nutrients is at about 68 F so temperatures below that generally have reasonable nutrient leels but when they rise above it for a week or two, nutrients are depleted. I've had bottom temps as high as 75-76 F here on several of my dives the past two months with very few dipping below 70 F.