HBDiveGirl
Contributor
- Messages
- 1,329
- Reaction score
- 44
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
4/26/05
Redondo Canyon, Vet's park, straight out from stairs and south at the blue contour lines marked in the sand ;-)
Max depth: 122fsw
Temp at depth: 51F (Aeris)
Start: 6:30 PM
Run time: 49 minutes
Waves: 1 foot, basically surface chop in brisk wind.
Continuing the cosmic pursuit in an alternate location, Ross-O and I capped a relentless work day with neutral buoyancy and deep immersion.
I'm eager to see the lion nudibranchs that Ross has photographed deep in the Redondo Canyon off Vet's park, so our plan was to surface swim out to the shipping lanes and dirt-dart to the bottom. After getting beat by the surface chop for awhile, we compromised with dropping a bit sooner and driving down the mud slope to 120fsw. Lots of life out in 20+ visibility: long-spine combfish everywhere, swaths of brittle star arms waving in the gloom, flatfish (from 2 inches to big 2-footer), bottle octopus and a small one hiding in the mud, red rockfish, cusk eels, midshipmen, roughfin sculpin, crabs galore. No nudibranchs we could find, but not much kelp debris in this area. Easing up to 110, Ross flashed me over...to see a stunning 4-foot angel shark dished into the muddy substrate. Eyes barely moving, it held that pose for photos. Ross found the shark's personal-space boundry and this beautiful animal rose up and flew straight at where I had been right before I had gasped, flinched and arched away so hard I got cramps in both calves. It looked alot bigger as it came up off the mud!! I looked over and noticed lots of bubbles were escaping from Ross's mask and reg....hmmmm.... "Fun with buddies?" I had been wanting to see it closer, and I got my wish! Continuing a slow diagonal climb up, we startled dozens of swimming crabs enjoying the brisk 51F water. We turned to parallel the edge of the canyon, and I realized the thermocline rested exactly at the boundry between relatively barren flat sand and the obviously life infested canyon slope. We found a Hermissenda nudibranch in boa-kelp debris, a little poacher fish that contentedly rested in my hand, and the smallest sarcastic fringehead I've seen yet: 4 inches of free-swimming cuteness. And then, ANOTHER angel shark! Shorter and rounder, and posed perfectly for the camera, this one eventually lifted and swam away into the gloom of the deeper canyon. Slow and gentle ascent along the bottom gave us pipe fish, spiney mole crabs, rock crabs, and modest sand dollar beds to appreciate, while warming up in the nearly balmy shallows. An odd army of at least 50 olive shell gastropods were making parallel furrows in the sand...all 'racing' toward the beach followed by a moon snail and an armored sea star. We surfaced to a golden setting sun, with hearts and minds refreshed by the unbelievable wonders of it all. Thanks, Ross, for a fun and fascinating dive!
Redondo Canyon, Vet's park, straight out from stairs and south at the blue contour lines marked in the sand ;-)
Max depth: 122fsw
Temp at depth: 51F (Aeris)
Start: 6:30 PM
Run time: 49 minutes
Waves: 1 foot, basically surface chop in brisk wind.
Continuing the cosmic pursuit in an alternate location, Ross-O and I capped a relentless work day with neutral buoyancy and deep immersion.
I'm eager to see the lion nudibranchs that Ross has photographed deep in the Redondo Canyon off Vet's park, so our plan was to surface swim out to the shipping lanes and dirt-dart to the bottom. After getting beat by the surface chop for awhile, we compromised with dropping a bit sooner and driving down the mud slope to 120fsw. Lots of life out in 20+ visibility: long-spine combfish everywhere, swaths of brittle star arms waving in the gloom, flatfish (from 2 inches to big 2-footer), bottle octopus and a small one hiding in the mud, red rockfish, cusk eels, midshipmen, roughfin sculpin, crabs galore. No nudibranchs we could find, but not much kelp debris in this area. Easing up to 110, Ross flashed me over...to see a stunning 4-foot angel shark dished into the muddy substrate. Eyes barely moving, it held that pose for photos. Ross found the shark's personal-space boundry and this beautiful animal rose up and flew straight at where I had been right before I had gasped, flinched and arched away so hard I got cramps in both calves. It looked alot bigger as it came up off the mud!! I looked over and noticed lots of bubbles were escaping from Ross's mask and reg....hmmmm.... "Fun with buddies?" I had been wanting to see it closer, and I got my wish! Continuing a slow diagonal climb up, we startled dozens of swimming crabs enjoying the brisk 51F water. We turned to parallel the edge of the canyon, and I realized the thermocline rested exactly at the boundry between relatively barren flat sand and the obviously life infested canyon slope. We found a Hermissenda nudibranch in boa-kelp debris, a little poacher fish that contentedly rested in my hand, and the smallest sarcastic fringehead I've seen yet: 4 inches of free-swimming cuteness. And then, ANOTHER angel shark! Shorter and rounder, and posed perfectly for the camera, this one eventually lifted and swam away into the gloom of the deeper canyon. Slow and gentle ascent along the bottom gave us pipe fish, spiney mole crabs, rock crabs, and modest sand dollar beds to appreciate, while warming up in the nearly balmy shallows. An odd army of at least 50 olive shell gastropods were making parallel furrows in the sand...all 'racing' toward the beach followed by a moon snail and an armored sea star. We surfaced to a golden setting sun, with hearts and minds refreshed by the unbelievable wonders of it all. Thanks, Ross, for a fun and fascinating dive!
. We headed into the canyon, exploring the collection of kelp and other detritus on the bottom - these areas appear to be favored by juvenile Kelp Bass and juvenile Senoritas. Although they kept their distance from us, we saw a pair of large Ocean Whitefish (the largest I've seen) 'mingling' with the juvenile Kelp Bass. After we hit our turnaround, we headed up the sandy canyon slopes until we crested the lip of the canyon. As we ascended, we hit that green water again but luckily passed right through it and into nice clearer water in the shallows (above 20 fsw). The visibility was in the 10-15 foot range but there was a lot of ambient light and the ripples of the surface water were clearly visible. We explored the shallows as we headed to our exit point when my eyes caught a Flabellina pricei - I locked down and attempted to get some video of the little guy. A little further on, we saw another Flabellina pricei which was munching on what appeared to be a piece of eel grass (or some growth on the eel grass blade). We also saw a small crab which I was not familiar with, although it appears to be an ARROW CRAB. I did get some video of it and have it posted - if anyone recognizes this little bugger please let me know! As we continued our swim to our exit point, we came across the rock patches and found, as usual, several juvenile Sheep Crabs, juvenile Sand Bass, Turbots/Soles, and some Speckled Midshipman (spooked by the juvie Sheep Crabs) in the sandy areas adjacent to the rock garden. We continued our swim and finally headed into shore to make our exit at Vallecitos Street. The skies were blue and sunny and did not give any indications of the rain that is supposed to visit us shortly - I hope the storm stays away! 
