Epic conditions at Farnsworth Bank

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Merry

Contributor
Messages
335
Reaction score
864
Location
Torrance, California
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Last Sat. on the Giant Stride, 6 of us* braved flat, calm seas and 60 – 70 ft vis to dive Farnsworth Bank. We were hunting the spectacular purple-hued California hydrocoral, Stylaster californicus. Another boat was on the high spot, so for us most of the hydrocoral was 90 – 100 fsw with no current.

Although I only shot WA, I managed to find the cryptic snail, Pedicularia californica, which lives exclusively on hydrocoral (photo center).

S. californicus can reproduce 2 ways - either asexually by fragmentation, or sexually with male colonies releasing sperm into the water, fertilizing eggs brooded by females.

*Kevin Lee, John Bibb, Jerry Hall, Peter Hall, Phil Garner and Captain Jim Simmerman

Phil descending in blue water
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Commensal snail, Pedicularia californica
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Beautiful! Very nice to see it and a good amount of it. My one trip to California I didn't get to dive Farnsworth; fishing boats beat us to it that morning.

Richard.
 
My favorite Catalina dive site, but sadly one I will probably never get to dive again. Always nice to see the photos others take there, Merry!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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