Sand, Surge, Snails and Slugs

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MaxBottomtime

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
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Location
Torrance, CA
# of dives
2500 - 4999
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Visibility was variable along Redondo Beach this weekend. We had excellent conditions on the Barge, but much of the marine life was missing. The sides of the barge have been wiped clean of the hydroids, nudibranchs and barnacles found there before. I ended the dive early due to a leaking mouthpiece, but I wasn't finding any interesting photo subjects anyway.

Our next dive was at Golf Ball Reef. Visibility here was not very good, but we found enough to keep us busy for an hour or so.

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Doto amyra

Merry suggested we dive shallow today, so we checked out Haggerty's. I didn't turn my camera on for the first fifteen minutes and considered aborting the dive due to boredom. I finally began finding some of the gray sponge favored by Felimare californiensis. The only nudibranch I found on the sponges and surrounding rocks was a single Mexichromis porterae.

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Eubranchus rustyus with eggs

I saw a coffee bean snail, Trivia solandri fall from a rock. I watched for thirty minutes while it slowly extruded its mantle. I had to hang onto a rock with my left hand and operate my camera with my right to avoid being swept away by the surge. Visibility at Haggerty's was nice if you stayed off the bottom where a sand storm kept the area free of lush reefs.

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Superb coffee bean snail captures! Loved the last two! Very unique species.
 
What is the reason the barge was barren? I'm curious. Here on the island the absence of giant kelp (and abundant presence of Sargassum horneri) certainly has played a role although midwater fish populations are pretty healthy. I find that interesting since fish like blacksmith are plankton feeders and the current low nutrient levels are affecting planktonic communities as well as giant kelp.
 
We've been drydocked by swells quite a few weekends this year. I'm not sure if the surge ripped off the algae and hydroids, but we also haven't had the jellies this year, which we usually see over the barge. The water has warmed up to the low 60s in the past month, but that is normal for this time of year.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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