Yesterday's dive at Redondo proved interesting. When I arrived, there was a thick layer of dead plankton floating on the surface ... looked like a massive oil spill or something. Since I was diving sidemount, I was concerned that if I dropped my tanks in the water as usual I might not find them ... so I tied my SMB to them to mark where they were. Turned out to be a good idea, as the vis in the shallows was zero. The other thing I noticed was that as I was gearing up, all that floating schmutz was sticking to every surface ... and once I got down below it, it didn't wash off. I had to use my glove to rub it off the lens of my housing. But I did get below it. By 30 feet, vis was decent ... below about 60 feet, it was clear, but dark. Of course dark is quite OK as far as the little octopus are concerned ... this one was rather active ...
I did my usual south entry, swimming across the fishing pier at about 80 fsw, and coming up from the carousel boat to the aquarium. I did stop by to say hello to my little wolfie friend, but her den was completely buried in kelp and sea lettuce, and I figured I've got enough pictures of her for now anyway, so I waved at her through the fronds and kept going. On my way up I found a grunt sculpin, and as I was lining up a shot, this hermit crab comes scurrying into the frame and ... well ... watch what happened next ...
... into the picture frame ...
... makes like a hat ...
... and then jumps off and sits there, posing pretty as you please ...
Makes me wonder if they knew each other ...
I checked out my cockerell's dorids ...
And then found a slender cockscomb ... haven't seen one of these in a while ...
Overall, a very nice dive ... max depth 85 fsw, dive time 69 minutes. But I came out completely covered in a thick film of dead plankton which, by the time I got back to the car, stank. And when I got home, I discovered it wasn't going to wash off either. After thoroughly soaking my gear, I had to take a brush to it and soak it again. Same for the camera housing and strobes. That stuff sticks like adhesive.
So today I decided to head up to my old office ... Cove 2 ... and go for a different look. The soup up there was thick down to about 60 feet, after which it got reasonable. For the most part, the story of this dive was nudibranchs ... although I did find a red brotula (no good pictures, though ... they're really reclusive and hard to photograph) ... and a few other critters that I did manage some pictures of.
Lots of flabellinas down deep ... got some decent shots ...
... and no dive lately is complete without at least one crassicornis picture ...
This tubeworm is a bit different ... almost looks like a bird ...
Down deep I found a red fur crab. He was stuck far back into the pilings, so I just went for a face shot ...
And on the way up I found some stiletto shrimp ...
... and a horned shrimp ... these guys are really hard to see ...
Overall a really nice dive ... despite the thick planktonic stew in the shallower depths. Did 80 minutes, to a max depth of 104 fsw.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
