Navy craft attacked by Red Menace on 9/11

We rushed home from the SDUFEX film festival in La Jolla so that we could check up on the red octopus eggs at the Landing Craft. About half of them have hatched. While photographing two trilineatas I was sudddenly attacked by a red menace. It turned out to be Commodore Andy who had arrived to join us. I showed him the eggs and the juvenile giant sea bass, but I missed the three large GSBs that Merry spotted again.


Red Menace looking for divers to stick


Andy and I have a long discussion about molecular physics


Terror of the Deep


Our little buddy comes out to play. Poor vis doesn't go well with a 60mm lens. I was set up for octopus eggs.






Spanish Shawl


Hairy little hermit crab


Cuthona divae laying eggs next to hedgehog hydroids


Trilineata twins out for a walk


Pyrosoma


Triopha catalinae










The red octopus, octopus rubescens population is about to go up.

Here's Merry's report;
Oh, those GSBs. On the descent, I saw a pair lurking just at the edge of visibility. As I tried to alert Phil, a single GSB followed them, but it was apparent they wouldn't allow a photo. Hopefully, they'll stick around and become somewhat accustomed to divers.

Each day we dove the landing craft this week, the water increased a little in temp. It went from 53 degrees, to 55, and then 59 today. Vis ~15 ft.


The landing craft has its share of cabezons. This one (possibly female) is huge by local standards, and can usually be found in her favorite spot.




This juvenile let me close.




Read Milton Love's latest tome, "Certainly More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast" for fascinating information about this fish. This clever book will also leave you in stitches.


Here the serpulid worms cooperate for photos, moreso than at other sites.




In this photo, you can see the rim of the serpulid's tube.




Organs, or perhaps eggs, are visible through the transparent body of Flabellina trilineata.




My point-and-shoot camera was sort of able to get the octopus eggs.




This pyrosoma had been caught by a small tube anemone.

Great pics

Where is this landing craft? Its not in my book and my google has failed me. Damn you google... damn you...

It's about a half mile off Malaga Cove.
LCM3

Scott Susoeff was there on Saturday and shot this;

Another great set of pix Phil and Merry. Interesting to see the scratches on the juvie GSB. I assume those were from scraping against the confines of its hiding place? Made me think of all the scratches we see on the adults, many of them probably from feeding in between the rocks on our reefs.

@ Phil: Beautiful shots! The detail on the Hermit Crab is epic. Nice Fire Salp shot as well, excellent lighting.
@ Merry: Great work on the Flabellina trilineata. Getting just the right exposure to illuminate those innards without burning out the rest of the image is extremely hard! The worms came out really good as well, very crisp.

I like the shot of the Red Menace and the shark egg and Merry's shot of the red cabezon. Good to catch up a little bit. 60 hours of textbook reading a week is messing up all other areas of my life. 12 weeks left...