I've placed plastic milk cartons as marker buoys on the Marineland Platform a couple of times and they were removed within a few days. After a squid boat dragged the platform last year, fouling it with a ton of net and killing a ton of animals, I knew I had to mark it again. This time I used a real buoy. I hope it will serve two purposes. I'd like to inform fishermen of the danger of setting a net there, and make it an accessible dive for Marineland beach divers again.
The platform is in seventy-five feet a few hundred yerad off the end of the 120 Reef. It's about the same distance as swimming from the cove to the Point.
The platform is a former floating dock similar to the fuel docks in harbors.
Merry and the new buoy
A couple of visitors approved of the new buoy
As for our dive, we arrived to find a plankton layer on the surface. We expected to see brown water down to at least forty feet, but instead it was only three feet thick. We had a nice twenty-five feet of vis all the way to the bottom. Among the critters who call the platform home are crabs, small fish, anemones, barnacles and nudibranchs.
My efforts from today;
Flabellina trilineata
Corynactis californica
Decorator crab
Monterey dorid
Merry's video from last year
The platform is in seventy-five feet a few hundred yerad off the end of the 120 Reef. It's about the same distance as swimming from the cove to the Point.
The platform is a former floating dock similar to the fuel docks in harbors.
Merry and the new buoy
A couple of visitors approved of the new buoy
As for our dive, we arrived to find a plankton layer on the surface. We expected to see brown water down to at least forty feet, but instead it was only three feet thick. We had a nice twenty-five feet of vis all the way to the bottom. Among the critters who call the platform home are crabs, small fish, anemones, barnacles and nudibranchs.
My efforts from today;
Flabellina trilineata
Corynactis californica
Decorator crab
Monterey dorid
Merry's video from last year