Rogue Lull

[Merry]

Diving offshore last weekend went pretty much like this: Jump out of bed at dawn, look at the beach cameras, judge the swell, look at the wind report, calculate our chances of beating the white-caps, race to the boat, race to the dive site, and hit the water ASAP. Periodically and unexpectedly, we'd have a few minutes of spooky calm as either the wind shifted and/or swell abated. Such a lull wouldn't last long and we'd be back to bucking in the chop. Vis is improving.

With Kevin in tow, we managed to hit the Barge, Golf Ball Reef, and the Crane at Haggerty's.


Yellowfin fringeheads are back!

Triopha catalinae juvenile

Felimare porterae

Polycera tricolor

Felimida macfarlandi juvenile

Ancula gibbosa laying eggs on the west side of the Barge

Doriopsilla eggs

One of 2 yellowfin fringeheads that I saw on the west side of the Barge.

Christmas tree worm, Spirobranchus spinosus, and Pycnoclavella stanleyi tunicates

Pycnoclavella stanleyi is a tiny, abundant, marvelously yellow social tunicate. Hundreds of them clustered together don't appear to be much more than a vague, yellow film on the tops of rocks, so you have to get very close to see them with the naked eye.

A gorgeous red tunicate from the Crane

The Crane is loaded with different species of tunicate

Hedgehog hydroid from the Crane

Amphipods congregate on a hydroid

 

[bperc]

Another great series of photos. Thanks for sharing.
Did you and Phil ever do the Pelagic Magic dive with Jack's Diving Locker? My friend and I did it last week. The creatures are very small. Looking at your photos makes me wonder if you could get such clear photos on that dive as well?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

It's been so long since we've seen any drifters around here. I would hope we would get better photos now but we'll never know until they return. In the meantime, here's a few of Merry's older shots...