Casino Dive Park Sept 3rd

CASINO POINT: Tuesday September 3rd 2013:

Conditions were pretty good and there were only a few divers in the water after the three day weekend. A moderate surge was present and some current running South ? , towards the harbor. Viz was 20-30-40 with some milkiness and particulates depending on where you were. I did a modified Dr. Bill tour where I headed out, hit 70 feet...and proceeded to the wreck of the Su Jac then angled up the slope to return back in shallower water through the kelp beds and back to the stairs area. At 60ft there was a major thermocline...the balmy 70ish water chilled a lot !! I anticipated this and wore hood and gloves but it still was cold and much more murky at depth...pretty unpleasant actually only saw a dead flying fish in this region...swam thru the hole in Su Jac and headed slowly up when a HUGE Giant Sea Bass (guess that's the opposite of a tiny shrimp) swam over me headed to the harbor. Biggest one I've yet seen...almost scary big. The return through the shallow kelp was much cleaner viz-wise and was WARM. I saw many, many, of the usual guys...for some reason octopus, eels, lobsters, baby scorpion fish and abalone were all out in unusual abundance and I saw also saw four fairly large horn sharks hiding in the caves and grottos. I fed the dead flying fish to some lobsters and they fought like crazy over it and were joined by a tiny moray eel. The lobsters were not impressed by the little eel although he struck an aggressive pose. As I poked around with my light in the holes I again encountered three (3) Guadalupe Cardinalfish. Beautiful fish with a peach-orange belly that transitions to a lavender back. They have two separate dorsal fins. They were somewhat bigger than the ones I saw last year so maybe some of that bunch survived. Like last year they were all back in the mini caves (full of lobster and abs) at about 15-20 feet depth, maybe 75 yds from stairs. I looked hard for the exotic damselfish from last year but no luck. Really the shallow diving was very good but the deeper diving was a waste of air. Second dive I just stayed shallow and looked at all the critters. Very relaxing. Just a great day overall.

Nice dive report. Thank you!

Impressed that you saw three Guadalupe cardinalfish (see my column) on a single dive. I've only seen one in over 2,000 dives at the dive park! Could be the extreme warm water of last year that probably brought up many larvae from Baja.

Hmm...cardinalfish.

Time to go hunting at the Park again. I don't think I've seen these mamajamas yet.

I just poke around back in the holes..will bring my go pro with next time..video'd them last year and posted on YouTube.....On this dive i noticed that one had swelling or larger lower jaw/gill cover area and adjacent abdomen while others did not..pregnant ? I don't know. Would be cool to have a colony.

As you face the Mainland they are to the right (South) at 15-20 feet maybe 200-300 feet from stairs..kelpy area...they like darker grottos/mini caves and usually have bugs and abs around as co-tenants. You need a light. Did not smoke any funny weed or adult beverages prior to diving and have never reported a mermaid sighting...yet. If they turn out to be a new species feel free to name them after me. They have same 'family' look as Cardinalfish in Indonesia with the twin separate fins on top but much much more of a guppy shaped body. A little skittish but easily observed and photographed if you lurk in above locations with a light.

You describe the perfect habitat for them... just the kind of spot I found mine in. I would think I'd see them at night but so far no luck.

Your Cardinalfish In the article is the identical one with lower jaw distended/ swollen as I saw Tuesday...other two did not have same jaw issue.

Ha... I guess I'll just have to do more poking around during (eeek) daylight! No sign of them at night yet... of course the dark red color makes them nearly invisible unless my video light hits them directly.