After a nice, relaxing road trip we decided to take it easy this weekend and dive locally. We headed to the Redondo Barge only to find dirty green water. A small band of sea lions greeted us so we hoped for great conditions on the wreck. I saw one sea lion under water, but too far away for a picture.
The barge had more nudibranchs than I recall seeing. The south wall was covered with Triopha catalinae and the northeast corner was crawling with Aegires albopunctatus. I was set up for wide angle, so Merry spent all of her dive on the corner.
Without sea lions to keep my attention I was able to observe the usual goings on of the residents. Two lingcods guarded the perimeter of the barge, waiting for stragglers to peek out from underneath.
A large yellow rock crab decided the barge wasn't big enough for his smaller rival. The loser still tried to act tough in front of me.
With no sea lions to bug them, fish were cruising outside the barge. Vermilion rockfish, Blacksmith, Senoritas and even the first two Blue rockfish I've found here went about their business.
I found a tiny Navanax polyalphos, only my second one. I didn't think I could find Merry before it crawled away so I took two shots. It turned out that she was only twenty feet away.
We will probably try the south side of Palos Verdes if we go out tomorrow. The way our dives have been going, I might find something new.
The barge had more nudibranchs than I recall seeing. The south wall was covered with Triopha catalinae and the northeast corner was crawling with Aegires albopunctatus. I was set up for wide angle, so Merry spent all of her dive on the corner.
Without sea lions to keep my attention I was able to observe the usual goings on of the residents. Two lingcods guarded the perimeter of the barge, waiting for stragglers to peek out from underneath.
A large yellow rock crab decided the barge wasn't big enough for his smaller rival. The loser still tried to act tough in front of me.
With no sea lions to bug them, fish were cruising outside the barge. Vermilion rockfish, Blacksmith, Senoritas and even the first two Blue rockfish I've found here went about their business.
I found a tiny Navanax polyalphos, only my second one. I didn't think I could find Merry before it crawled away so I took two shots. It turned out that she was only twenty feet away.
We will probably try the south side of Palos Verdes if we go out tomorrow. The way our dives have been going, I might find something new.
