Merry has been asking to visit the White Point outfall pipes for awhile. We needed to get gas in the boat, so we cruised around the peninsula toward San Pedro. The ocean was dead calm with no wind in sight.
We dropped into surprisingly good visibility. San Pedro is not known for its great conditions. As the bottom came into view we could see the pipe was covered by marine life. I don't even want to mention what the inside of the pipe looks like.
Besides the usual nudibranchs and top snails which are common on the pipe we found patches of squid eggs covering the surrounding sand. A large cabezon kept approaching my camera as if he was interested in his reflection.
After an hour at the zoo we ascended next to the kelp that is currently growing on the pipe. I found a tiny nudibranch that didn't look familiar. Merry and I took a ton of photos. It turned out to be a color variation of Triopha maculata, which I have plenty of in my image collection.
Back on the boat, Merry asked if I saw the Melibe leoninas on the kelp. I hadn't, so after a visit to the fuel dock we returned to the pipe. We saw the same subjects as the first dive, except this time I found out why the cabezon kept approaching me. He was guarding his nest. We missed that completely on the first dive. I took a shot from a few feet away with my macro setup. I hope Merry's shots are better than mine.
We dropped into surprisingly good visibility. San Pedro is not known for its great conditions. As the bottom came into view we could see the pipe was covered by marine life. I don't even want to mention what the inside of the pipe looks like.
Besides the usual nudibranchs and top snails which are common on the pipe we found patches of squid eggs covering the surrounding sand. A large cabezon kept approaching my camera as if he was interested in his reflection.
After an hour at the zoo we ascended next to the kelp that is currently growing on the pipe. I found a tiny nudibranch that didn't look familiar. Merry and I took a ton of photos. It turned out to be a color variation of Triopha maculata, which I have plenty of in my image collection.
Back on the boat, Merry asked if I saw the Melibe leoninas on the kelp. I hadn't, so after a visit to the fuel dock we returned to the pipe. We saw the same subjects as the first dive, except this time I found out why the cabezon kept approaching me. He was guarding his nest. We missed that completely on the first dive. I took a shot from a few feet away with my macro setup. I hope Merry's shots are better than mine.
