Whales and Nudibranchs; Long Point Report 7.14.09

[FrankPro1]

Charlie and I did a Long Point dive today which was incredible. We entered at the Point and dropped down in about 45ft of water. We descended down into a nice smaller reef patch but decided to head deeper to find the pinnacles. In about 60-65ft of water we found some large structure to explore, but not the pinnacles we were searching for. As we started our nudi search a high pitch noise started. After a minute or two the noise grew stronger and started changing pitch and tone. We were hearing whales sing! This was the first experience I've had hearing whales underwater and it was both surreal and humbling. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. We hung around 55-60ft for about 20mins, the whole time searching for nudi's and listening to the whales. We then took a heading slightly in from parallel to shore and crept up into about 40-45ft. Here we found some larger reef structure and again explored around searching for nudi's and other interesting creatures. The water is warming up! Even at Long Point. My sunnto D4 read 68 at the surface and 59 at depth. Nudibranch sightings: Spainsh Shawl, San Diego Dorid, Yellow Dorid, Limbaugh's Cadlina "my first one", Porter's Chromodorid, Odhner's Dorid, White Spotted Porostome, Diaulula nobilis, Hermissenda crassicornis, Berthella californica and various nudi branch eggs. It was truly a nudi spectacular out there today. More then I've ever seen before. We surfaced and exited via the point. Even in the very mild swell the exit was somewhat difficult. Luckily Charlie took hold of my camera, just as a set came in and turtled me in between some rocks. I quickly righted myself up without injury, but things could have went the way of disaster if I had my housing in hand. Visibility wasn't as nice as I expected it "a clear 10ft to a murky 15-20ft".
Some Pics:

 

[fnfalman]

Nudies galore!!!

What's the white one with the circles called?

 

[FrankPro1]

Nudies galore!!!

What's the white one with the circles called?

Don't quote me on this but I believe it to be a San Diego Dorid (Diaulula sandiegensis).
From what I gather on the internet it seems they have a variety of color and shape. Here's another pair of them I took today. One is very yellow and round, while the other is like the first one, very long and white. Calling Bottomtime, am I right?

 

[ligersandtions]

Great pics! I haven't made it back to Marineland since they opened up (I was out of town for the entire time I think), but am hoping conditions will be favorable in the next couple weeks and I'll make it out there.

Very cool that you got to hear whales while you were diving! How cool would it be to actually get to see one?!?!

 

[robint]

Nudies galore!!!

What's the white one with the circles called?

you might want to pick up one of the nudie ID cards made by a group of very nice divers out there in Calif: California Nudibranch ID Cards - Home
You can get it online or at some of the dive shops. We have found it very useful.

 

[drbill]

When I saw this thread, I thought you had been diving Long Point on Catalina...

 

[FrankPro1]

When I saw this thread, I thought you had been diving Long Point on Catalina...

Nope.. Good old Long Point pinnacles at Marineland on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We were in Phoenix all week. We stopped by New Marineland this afternoon to see crashing waves...again! Grrr!!!
My truck has been packed for a week and a half. I have two days left on my vacation so if I don't get in the water by Sunday, someone's gonna die.
P.S. Did you happen to turn on your video mode and capture any of the noise?

 

[FrankPro1]

P.S. Did you happen to turn on your video mode and capture any of the noise?

I've beat myself up thinking about just that. I don't know if it would have captured it, but still... I should have atleast tried. I was so taken in by the abundance of nudi's and the whales song, that I never even thought about it until we surfaced.

The swell is up a lot of places right now, but my free-dive buddy and I did a kayak/ free-dive mission today. We launched at Malaga Cove, kayaked past indicators and then returned back for a free-dive at Flat Rock. Conditions are GOOD at Flat Rock right now. 15-20ft of vis and very little surge.

Also Military Bob and I did Christmas Tree yesterday and Charlie and his girl did Honeymoon. Both spots had a mild bloom and vis was quite bad in the shallows. Once at depth things opened up to a murky 15ft.

Bob and I found some incredible structure at Christmas Tree. We did the normal 240 out, turning to 330 once at depth and the 0-30 return. But we must have strayed off because we found a nice large wall I've never scene before which dropped down into 65 odd feet. We descended down into about the 50-55ft zone and swam along the edge of it. Crevices, Overhangs and small cave systems littered this wall. More life in all shades of colors then any other CTC dive before.

I think we might have went farther off the left point then normal and headed 240 a little longer then we normally due. This put us out farther off the point then our normal pattern. Hopefully we'll be able to find it again. It was fantastic!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Ross and I were diving out there once when he saw a lobster back in the cave. He took his tank off and shimmied back to the corner of the wall, but the bug shot past him and I think Ross could hear me laughing from ten feet away. Some of those overhangs are filled with lobsters in the winter, plus nudibranchs and sponges blanket the wall. If you follow the reef in toward the left point of the cove it breaks the surface at low tide.