Interesting Yukon Night Dive

Date: Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007

Location: Yukon, Wreck Alley, Mission Beach

Dive Type: Recreational

Time: 7:30: pm

Max Depth: 102 ft. [brought shovel]

Conditions: flat, glassy/air still smoky

Viz: a murky 3-5 ft. above 30 ft. [mostly ash floating particles in the water], opening up to a respectable 20 ft. on the Yukon.

Mix: 32%

Critters Seen: Barred Sand Bass, Surfperch, White Medtridia, Strawberry Anemones, Painted Greenlings, CA Sea Cucumbers

'
Well, after the week from hell [literally], we decided it was time to blow off some and do some serious diving.

A PADI Instructor friend of ours, Lori, was visiting from Florida and we had planned to take her out anyway several months ago. Her first reaction was: "You're not going to let 'a couple little fires' stop you from diving, are you?" And, of course, our immediate reply [in chorus] was: "OF COURSE NOT!", so we met
at the dock at 6 pm and motored out under smoky/hazy skies to Wreck Alley.

Lori had been a member of an earlier dive group we had formed in San Diego a few years ago for diving Scripps Canyon, whose motto had been: "The Few.......the Proud......the COMPLETELY INSANE." [Apologies to the US Marine Corps.]

Note: one reason it was so relatively easy to do was we had already packed all our dive gear and tanks and loaded them into Barb's truck a couple days earlier, thinking we'd be living on the boat for a few days, so we were ready to rock!

Since our friend Lori hadn't been in a dry suit in a while, it was decided that the girls [Barb, Lori and Kathy] would dive together and me and Jarrod would buddy up and jump in first, which we did.

Viz was a bit murky on the way down, since there was still a lot of ash and particulate matter in the water, but once we got on the Yukon itself, it opened up to around 15-20 ft. or so.

We had moored on the Stern line, so we quickly found ourselves crawling along the bottom under the Mortar Bay, towards the Rear Guns.

Lady Yuke glowed pink and white in the beams of our lights from the ubiquitous White Medtridia and Strawberry Anemones and dark shadows loomed spookily up ahead in the gloom.

The usual assortment of bored looking Sand Bass gazed up at us from the sand, as if wondering who the hell we were, visiting at the ship at this time of night.

We swam under the ship in front of the Rear Guns, sending Spiny Lobster scuttling out of the way of our lights. The occasional Surf Perch could be seen
flitting about between the railings of the ship.

We had agreed that we would turn around when we got past the Radio Tower, which we did.

I could see Jerrod's flash going off at regular intervals in the gloom and he took pictures here and there.

We glided up to that one large entrance in front of the Radio Tower, not a cut out, but some sort of natural ventilation shaft, and darted in for a quick look.

It's the one where you go in about 4 ft. and then it takes a sharp turn to the right, leading deeper into the ship.

We went in, in single file, being careful not to stir up any silt, until we came to the right hand turn, then we slowly turned around and made our way back out, being careful not to knock off the Warty Sea Cucumbers clinging to the walls on either side and causing Sea Cucumbers to rain down all around us, as I have done in the past; inconveniencing ourselves and causing them to hate us with a passion.


We glided out and made our way towards the Mortar Bay, where we planned to linger, play around and take some more pictures.

I found a small Masking Crab clinging to the edge of a metal flange, and got him up on my hand and gestured for Jerrod to come on over to take a shot.

But, he hastily crawled off my hand, back onto the metal flange, obviously not wanting to avail himself of this opportunity for fame and fortune as one of Jerrod's subjects, and scuttled off into the bowels of the ship.

I noticed a little bit of a current had picked up, so we ducked into the Bay itself to get our of it.

I dropped down into the Lobster Trap hole to inspect any changes since I had been here last and Jerrod busied himself taking pictures around the sides of the Bay.

Ascending back up out of the Lobster Trap Hole, I thought I'd show Jerrod the 'Roof Hatch' of the Mortar Bay and how to glide up through it, into the Kelp Forest above.

I circled it with my light to indicate that I was going through it, if he'd like to follow, which he did, right behind me.

I began slowly adjusting my buoyancy with breath control until I was gradually gliding up through the large cutout in the top, until I was in the little room just above it, and and then up through the top, into the Macrocystis Forest on the Starboard side.

I was halfway out of the hole, with Kelp fronds slapping my face from either side in the current, when I felt a violent tugging on my right ankle.

I thought: "Ah, Jerrod, stop horsing around--this is the Yukon, at NIGHT, remember?"

Another violent tug on my ankle. I gradually repositioned myself so I could look down into the hole I had emerged from, which was a bit difficult with all the Kelp slapping me in the face and the current picking up even more now.

As I peered down into the hole, at first I couldn't see anything. I thought, "Where the hell is Jerrod?--he was right behind me--tugging on my foot!"

Then, as I peered more closely, I could see his bubbles coming out of the cutout, but NO LIGHT.

When he finally came out of the hole, I could see quite clearly that he HAD NO LIGHT.

Ah.....primary light failure on the Yukon at night--how interesting!

Not knowing if his backup light was accessible to him, I immediately reached up into my reserve BC pocket for my back up to give to him and naturally the damn thing was positioned about 2 inches under my left armpit, making it a bit difficult to reach--with either hand--but, I finally got it out and started to hand it to Jerrod, as the current picked up even more now and we were being rock and rolled back and forth about 3 ft. in either direction, which didn't make things any easier.

With Kelp fronds slapping us from either side, I handed it to him, but he kept refusing it. He kept pointing to the back of his tank--huh?

Oh, yeah: I had forgotten: he was using a Nigh Rider light, with a battery pack and the ON/OFF switch conveniently located right on the back of his tank.

Ah, now the light was beginning to dawn: he had accidentally tripped his ON/OFF switch on a flange while coming up through the Roof Hatch!

See? All that 'college ejukation' didn't go to waste after all!

Reaching over the top of his tank while the current flung us back and forth and Kelp fronds kept wrapping themselves around my face, I managed to find the little switch and turn it on and.......Hallelujah! LIGHT!

Breathing not a small sigh of relief, I turned around to face a greatly relieved Jerrod, who no longer faced the possibility of ascending from the Yukon in the dark, without his light.

Deciding that that had been enough excitement for one evening, we mutually agreed that this might be a good time to begin our ascent, which we did.

We ascended slowly up through the layer of ash near the surface and popped to the surface just as the girls were getting ready to descend.

Once back on board, we had a great time reliving our little fiasco, exchanging high fives on how brilliantly we had handled it, laughing and scratching......but also agreeing that perhaps next time, he might want to position his battery pack a little off to the side of his strap, instead of right on the back, where the switch is more vulnerable to getting tripped like that on a wreck dive.

The girls popped up about 40 mins later, shrieking about what a great dive they had had, and we all put away our gear and motored merrily back to the Marina, everyone in agreement that it had been a good night and joking about our new motto: "What happens on the Scuba Do, stays on the Scuba Do!"

NASA Outer Space Photos of California Wildfires [Click to Enlarge]

San Diego Firestorm

Firestorms Rip Through San Diego

This is the worst fire in San Diego history.

Worse than the Cedar Firestorm of 2003.

Blazes have scorched more than 100,000 acres as 250,000 households are told to flee......

Mira Mesa, where we live, is about 7 miles from the nearest area being evacuated and the order to evacuate could come at any time.

The air is thick with smoke and ash, giving the sun an eerie orangish glow during the day making breathing difficult and burning the eyes.

Smoke from the fires can be seen from outer space.

If/when the order to evacuate comes, we plan to just go live on the boat for a couple days.......after that, we're not sure.

For more, see: http://www.signonsandiego.com/

La Jolla Shores Night Dive

Date: 10/11/07

Time: 7-ish

Dive Length: 45 mins

Surf: 1-2 ft on the way out......2-3 ft. on the way back

Max Depth: 115 ft.

Mix: 32% Nitrox [see Glossary]

Temp: sorry, forgot to notice....

Critters Seen: baby Thornback Rays, baby Shovelnose Guitarfish, Rockfish, Cabezon, Round Rays, Octos

Barbara, Merrianne, Kathy, NOAA Jim and I had agreed to meet on V-St. between 6 & 6:30 and by 6:30, everyone was there.

Because Jim had his doubles on, it was decided that I would buddy up with him to go slightly deeper and the girls would head out on their own dive, which worked out just fine, since Barb had the video cam and would most likely need help with it in the surf.

I don't know how deep Jim thought we were going, but he was all tricked out with twin 72s and a 72 cu. ft. bailout bottle. I had to remind him that I was on 32% and we wouldn't be setting any depth records, but he was fine with that, so we waded out into the 1-2 ft. ankle slappers and kicked our way out to around 60 ft of depth and immediately dropped.

The plan was to drop down South of Vallecitos Pt. and make our way North towards it and then come up roughly under it; but, as usual, I had forgotten that the Point pretty much disappears below 80 ft., making it difficult to come up under it from any depth below 70 ft.

So, we dropped down and immediately found ourselves in the 'Zion National Park' of steep sandstone cliffs, overhangs and large boulders strewn about the bottom, with the odd Rockfish peering out curiously at us.

We continued North at 115 ft. as the terrain changed from boulders and cliffs to a gradually sloping sandy bottom.

What I didn't realize was I had dropped us North of Vallecitos to begin with, and we were actually on the flat, sandy plain leading to the Secret Garden, almost parellel with the North Lifeguard Tower.

No matter.......we continued cruising along the bottom, coming across the odd Octo who would squirt ink at us and jet off.

Jim came across a really cute little baby Thornback Ray and we paused to play with him for a bit before moving on.

I noticed the terrain was beginning to change, forming a Westward oriented slope down into deeper water, which should have been my clue that we were further North than I realized.

At this point, I decided to point us East a bit and when I did so, I noticed that swimming East didn't cause the bottom to slope upward any. This was because we were in the Blue Water Basin just South of Secret Gardens and the North Wall.

Heading East from this area can be disconcerting because the bottom temporarily drops away from you, rather than getting shallower, causing your nitrogen-addled brain to wonder why it's getting deeper when you're heading East.

We were just South of the Great Eastward Blue Water Swim.

Nonetheless, after rising up to around 85 ft., we finally hit the wall of the canyon and began proceeding into shallower water.

We had an uneventful swim in, with the usual Round Rays scooting around, trying to avoid our presence, along with a couple baby Shovelnose Guitarfish.

A very nice and relaxing dive.....and this time, Jim didn't have to worry about his twins turning into a single 72 at 115 ft. [private joke...].

Dive safe, everyone..........

Two Moray Eels and a Cleaner Shrimp: " A Little Down and To the Left, Please!"

The 'Eyes' Have It: Brown Shrimp at Redondo Canyon

10/7/07: Dragon Head, Pt. Loma Photos Below: Click To Enlarge

Yellow Fin Fringehead: Neoclinus stephensae

San Diego Dorid: Diaulula sandiegensis

Yellow Edged Cadlina: Dragon Head, Pt. Loma

David Behrens: Nudibranch 'God' and Author of Many Nudibranch Books

About Latin Names and Nudibranch 'Gods'....

Even the marine biologist we dive with every month doesn't know the Latin name of everything she sees; in fact, I'd venture to say that she doesn't know the Latin name of most of what she sees; just some of what she sees.

And, that's the way it is with most of us, underwater.....although a couple of nudibranch photographers that we dive with from Orange County......well, you practically need a Latin/English dictionary in hand when they start talking after a dive!

Now, marine biologists will tell you that the scientific name of a critter serves a valuable purpose scientifically: it is not vague, like many of the common names, which are easily confused and are sometimes ambiguous, even though perhaps easier to remember.

The scientific name serves to pinpoint the Genus and Species, according to a set format: the Genus always starts with a capital letter and the species with a small letter, as in: Homo sapiens.

Now, the more linguistically astute of you might notice something interesting about the species names of some of the nudibranches or more accurately, opisthobranches, in the masterful photos below this entry:

Look at this one: Diaulula sandiegensis

Does sandiegensis look familiar to you at all? Perhaps like a city [San Diego] that you might know?

How about Dendrodoris behrensi ?

Now, this isn't entirely fair to non-nudibranch fans among you, but to the hardcore nudibranchers among you, this will be a no-brainer: it is named for Nudibranch 'God,' David Behrens, author of many authorative books on nudibranches and opisthobranches [too numerous to list here] and who is viewed by many as the Supreme Expert among Nudibranch experts.

So......see? There is a logic to the madness of Latin names: if you discover something, they will name it after you!

There is even a local diver here in La Jolla, George Spalding, whom I used to dive Scripps Canyon with quite a bit, who is never afraid to remind those around him that more than one species of opisthobranch has been named after him, such as: Doriopsilla spaldingi, and even one named after his daughter, Azine: Dendrodoris azineae.

So, the Latin name not only gives you the Genus, but also the Species and who, if anyone, discovered it.

Not all Latin names credit the discoverer, simply because he or she may be unknown, or it was many years ago or many people have shared in the discovery.

So......while many of us continue to stumble through life with Latin or Greek Dictionaries in hand......others take to it, you'll excuse the expression, like fish to water, and happily travel back and forth between Kingdom, Phlyum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species in Latin or Greek, leaving the rest of us with our heads spinning!

Oh, and in case all this talk of Nudibranches vs Opisthobranches is making your head spin, here's some relief:

Opisthobranch is a Subclass of the Class: Gastropoda, so the taxonomy would look like this:

Phylum: Mollusca-->Class: Gastropoda-->Subclass: Opisthobranchia--> Order: Nudibranch or 'Sea Slug' in Plain English.

Clear as mud now?

--Don't know what a Nudibranch is? See the Marine Life Glossary on the right-->

Out on a Limb [Click to Enlarge]

Dendrodoris behrensi

Diaulula sandiegensis

Limacia cockerelli

Eyeball-to-Eyeball with a Scorpionfish

Octo Hiding Among the Purple Sea Urchins [Click to Enlarge]

Science Diving News: PISCO and RCCA Collaborate

The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO), based at the University of Santa Cruz, and Reef Check California (RCCA) have been collaborating on the central coast conducting subtidal monitoring. RCCA uses trained and certified volunteer divers to collect scientifically-sound data.

The comparison at Weston began in 2006 with RCCA and PISCO conducting fish surveys one day apart. To add an additional replicate to the comparison survey, Weston was surveyed once again by PISCO on Friday Sept. 21, 2007, and RCCA surveyed the same site on Saturday Sept. 22, 2007. RCCA and PISCO have already begun the analysis for last year and the data looks great!

RCCA divers are consistently getting estimates of density, size, and trends that are close to the PISCO estimates; scientifically speaking the data from preliminary analysis supports RCCA being within an acceptable level of precision of PISCO’s estimates.




For more info, see: Blue Planet Divers.org:

http://www.blueplanetdivers.org/archives/2007/09/pisco_and_rcca.php#more

Barb's Latest Nudibranch Video

Barbara's latest nudibranch video, shot last weekend on the Yukon, can be see here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=981617604032148620&hl=en

For the Hi Def Version, go to: http://www.divascuba.com/

Russ Davis and the Argo Project

Scripps Institution of Oceanography Researcher Russ Davis is revolutionizing marine science by creating robotic 'data collection devices' that look like small torpedoes and setting them adrift in the various open oceans of the world for up to 4 years at a time, where they sink down to depths as deep as 6,500 ft, collecting current, temperature and salinity information and relaying them back up to satellites, before running out of battery power.

For more on this, see: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20071002-9999-1n2argo.htm