These remarkable photos were taken recently by underwater photographer Kevin Lee while on a blue-water [no bottom] dive in the open ocean off the coast of San Diego.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Friday, November 30, 2007
Aliens of the Deep
You Meet the Most Interesting People Diving.....
Actually, we didn't meet her diving.......we went to a lecture she gave at Ocean Enterprises about the various theories of human migration from Asia and the underwater archeological evidence, which might be present locally in La Jolla, at various depths, for human habitation along the coastline within the past 40,000 years.
Dr. Norrie Robbins, PhD of the Dept. Geological Sciences at San Diego State University presented us with some fascinating data/theories about what archeological evidence might lie beneath the surface at various depths right off the coast of San Diego, to wit:
"This project I am trying to start, Deep Underwater Archaeology, needs people who dive to approx. 160 ft (180-140 is probably the range).
The Calif. history we are trying to discover is the history of people from 20,000-40,000 years ago. Onshore, archaeologists have a clean record from 14,000 years to the present. Archaeologists also have a nice record of villages along the 8,000-year-ago shoreline (now under 25 ft of water). Deep divers are needed to understand when people first arrived here and where they landed and lived.
[Google or Wiki the following: Bering Strait Migration Theory/Clovis Settlements] --MB
Here's the data set, just in case people want to start looking around:
8,000 years ago now under 25 ft of water
20,000 390 ft of water (edge of continental shelf exposed)
30,000 150 ft of water
40,000 160 ft of water
60,000 50 ft of water
Local divers know about the mortars which lay in 10-15 ft. of water locally off of the Marine Room, depending on the tides, evidence of Indian habitation here 4-8,000 years ago.
Now, she says, there may be even more archeological evidence at deeper depths, for those willing to explore them.
How cool is that?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Video Stills from Our 11-25-07 P-38 Dive:
Remember: the quality of video stills is not a good as that of digital photos!
--CLICK ON PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE
WW II P-38 Lightning Dive
Date: 11-25-07
Location: Somewhere off the coast San Diego
Time: 11:30
Conditions: flat
Viz: 8 ft at 30 ft./15 ft. at Depth
Max Depth: 135 ft.
Dive Length: 35 mins
Temp: 54 F
Bottom Mix: 28%
Off-Gas Mix: 40%
Critters Seen: A Giant Sheephead, extremely large Kelp, Copper, Gopher
and Vermilion Rockfish, 2 Wolf Eels, Strawberry Anemones
We picked up NOAA Jim and the two P-38 Brothers, Ron and Dan,
so-called because each time they come with us, we find the plane and
each time they do not, we don't. So, they are our 'good luck charms'
for finding the plane and motored out in the Scuba Do under sunny
skies and flat seas.
We had been promising Jim a trip out to the P-38 for months now, but
conditions had not suited themselves until the Santa Ana conditions of
this weekend, so we jumped at the chance.
It was now or never.
Upon arrival at the site, we located the plane's approximate location
by GPS and then dropped a very lightly weighted shot line down, being
careful to drop it outside the possible zone of the plane and hoped
that it would land within spitting distance of the plane, which is
small enough to miss in the open ocean, even when you have the
numbers. We would then send the expert P-38 Finder Brothers down
with a reel, which they would tie off to the shot line and then do a
circular search pattern until they located plane and then shoot a bag
to let us know they had found it.
They jumped in, dropped down the shot line, and within about 15
minutes, we were delighted to see an orange bag pop to the
surface--they had found it! Yee-Ha!
About 15 minutes later, they surfaced and reported that they had found
it on the Southern-most pass of the reel, just as they had been ready
to give up. We're sure glad they didn't call it quits--the P-38
Brothers had worked their magic once again!
Needless to say, Barb, Jim and I wasted no time suiting up and jumping in.
Jim had his scooter with a video camera in the nose and Barb had the
'VW'--the Hi Def Video Cam and as we dropped down the line, everyone
fiddled about, making last minute adjustments on their equipment.
Jim and I arrived on the sandy bottom first and looking up, I noticed
Barb was still far above us, so I gave him the signal to go ahead on
the scooter, and he wasted no time: he was off like a shot towards the
little plane, kicking up a small trail of silt with his scooter.
By the time Barb arrived on the bottom, precious minutes had already
ticked away and I was anxious to get going, so as soon as she touched
down, I was on my way.
Except looking down, I noticed that Jim's little cloud of silt had
unintentionally covered the bottom where Dan had tied the line off
from the plane to the shot line. Our line to the plane had
disappeared!
After a little groping about, however, I was able locate the line by
feel and we were on our way. Whew!
Viz was not quite as good as the last time we were on the plane, last
Spring, when it was 30 ft. +, but it was a respectable 15 ft., which
allowed us to see the plane in it's entirety.
Dan had expertly, but gently, tied off the line to the front of the
plane, where we could easily find it and unreel it at the end of the
dive, without damaging anything.
It was a bit dark on the bottom, due to lack of sunlight, but we could
still see most of the little plane, sitting there, all pretty in
pink, covered in bright red Strawberry Club-Tipped Anemones and
seeming to pulsate neon-bright in our lights
As we glided up along the cockpit, also covered in the red anemones,
we came across one of the largest Sheephead any of us had ever seen:
he had to be almost 3 ft long, if he was an inch, even allowing for
underwater magnification.
He cruised majestically up and down the side of the plane as if he
owned it, which he probably did, followed by a small harem of smaller
females, trailing close behind. I mean, this guy was the size of a
small dog.
Seeing our lights, he ducked into the structure of the plane, to
emerge later on in the dive. We think he was the same one we saw last
time, albeit quite a bit smaller in size, actually swim through a hole
in the floor of the cockpit and over the top of the plane, making
sure everyone knew that he was the Alpha Male around here!
Two large black and yellow Treefish also tried to camouflage
themselves inside the plane, but our relentless lights managed to find
them.
Barb took some video of me peering over the machine gun and into the
ammo box, which still contains live ammo, by the way, before making
her way over to the end of the port wing.
I heard a buzzing noise and saw Jim zipping around the periphery of
the plane, video cam humming away. Through his mask, you could see he
was grinning from ear to ear.
I glided about effortlessly over the top of the plane, taking a Grand
Tour of both wings and the fuselage, careful not to let any item of
equipment bump into it.
Then, we saw Barb flashing her light wildly at us and screaming into
her regulator: I knew what she had found: Mr. Wolf Eel.
Slowly kicking my way over, I looked down to see what all the fuss was
about: sure enough: Mr. Wolf Eel was peering out of his little hole in
the wing, wondering what all the fuss was all about and who these
strange beings were who had come down to visit him in his little hole.
Barb added to the surreal atmosphere when she adjusted her video
lights on him, and the Nite Rider light arms made a strange squeaking
sound.
What none of us realized at the time, was that there was a *second
Wolf Eel in the hole with him,* invisible to the naked eye, because he
was in the background.
We only spotted him upon reviewing video footage from the dive. How
cool is that?
If you look closely at the stills below, you'll see the left eye of
the Wolf Eel on the left of the picture peering out
I'm including a link below to some teaser stills, but bear in mind, that
because they are stills taken from video, they do not have the
resolution you may have come to expect from digital photos. We hope
some actual video from the dive will be ready to show you within a few
days.
Then, I remembered our dive plan: 15 minutes max on the bottom, so I
reluctantly signaled Barb and Jim that it was time to turn around and
begin heading back to the shot line--we had agreed that I would reel
the line back in, which might take a couple extra minutes.
So, I went over to the line Dan had tied and gently undid the loop,
careful not to damage anything on plane and began reeling us all in to
the shot line a few dozen yards away.
The long, slow ascent was boring but uneventful: I was pleased at how
effortlessly the Suunto Vytec handled the gas switch to 40% at 40 ft.
which reduced our hang time a bit.
Jim, being Tech trained, had a bottle of 100% O2 with him, which
reduced his deco hang to almost nothing and there were some numbers
followed by rather rude but friendly international gestures exchanged
at the safety stop which Barb somehow managed, to our chagrin, to
capture on the video. Luckily, what happens on the Scuba Do, or under
it, as the case may be, stays on the Scuba Do. :)
All in all, it was another marvelous day in paradise and on the
beautiful little San Diego treasure known as the P-38 Lightning.
For a good history of the plane, see:
http://www.cawreckdivers.org/Wrecks/P38.htm
For some teaser video stills from the dive, see:
http://picasaweb.google.com/scubapro.bear/112507P38Dive
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Torpedo Rays [Electric]
Electric rays (order: Torpediniformes) are fish that have a rounded body and a pair of organs capable of producing an electric discharge, up to 220 volts depending on the species.
Species pictured below is: Torpedo californica
Redondo Canyon Night Dive
Date: 11-20-07
Dive # 736
Location: Veteran's Park, Redondo
Time: 6:48 pm
Purpose: Photography and site seeing.....
Viz: hard to tell: 10-12 ft?
Surf: 2-3 footers, no big deal......
Dive Length: 53 mins
Max Depth: 96 ft.
Mix: 31%
Critters Seen: Huge Torpedo Ray [Electric], not one, but two, baby Giant Sea Bass [!], numerous Sheep and Swimming crabs and a Fringehead dueling with a crab........
First of all, many thanks to Mike, Kevin and Scott for inviting me up to Redondo to dive with them and have the opportunity to watch the Master Photographers at their craft! :)
They patiently guided me to the dive site by cell phone after I had become hopelessly entangled and lost in local rush hour traffic after taking a wrong turn.
We then met in the parking lot, suited up and were in the water fairly quickly.
Scott gave me sage advice about entering and exiting the beach at Vet's: the bottom slopes a bit steeper than La Jolla Shores, so fins need to be donned and doffed in slightly deeper water: neck deep, rather than waist deep, or you risk getting knocked on your tea kettle by 3 footers which pack a surprising punch, as I was to find out, rather comically later on.
I had brought Ye Olde Trusty Depthfinder to find the edge of the canyon, but these old pros didn't need it. It was only a two minute swim to the edge.....unlike the 20-40 minute swims we're used to down South to edge of La Jolla Canyon.
But, they let me use it just so I could feel useful; and they were able to guess the bottom below us within 6 inches, no matter where we were........man, I was impressed!
Right about 23 ft. Scott gave the order to drop, so I deflated my BC and we dropped.
The bottom contour at Redondo is a much gentler slope than at La Jolla Shores, which drops in steps or terraces of about 5 ft. each. The slope at Redondo is very gentle, so you don't get a sensation of descending until you look at your depth gauge and suddenly you're at 90 ft.
I also noticed that the sand is much finer; it's hardly even sand, it's more like silt, which makes it extremely easy to kick up and create a 'silt-out' in open water without even meaning to.
Once I caught on to this, I was careful to try and always hover above Scott as he took his photos, so as not to ruin them with silt from my fins.
Scott guided us in an Westerly direction, towards deeper water and we passed the usual assortment of swimming crabs, scuttling to get out of the way as we swam by and Scott's strobes were flashing busily as I explored a few feet away.
Then, around 80 ft. or so, we stumbled across what appeared to be the round, blue lid to a rather large garbage can, lying half buried in the sand.
However, as we approached it moved slightly. As we got closer, we saw, to our amazement, one the largest Torpedo Rays I have ever seen in my life--Scott, too--and he's seen his share of them at Farnsworth Bank.
This guy was a Monster: at least a yard across, if not a yard and a half and dark, devil blue. Just sittin' there.....chillin'.....with a decidedly sinister aura about him.
Of course, at this point, Scott's in photographer's heaven and is screaming something into his regulator and before I know it, he and his camera are going nose to nose with the thing--literally--with the lens about 2 inches away from the monster's face, all strobes flashing away furiously.
And, of course, I'm thinking: "Oh, please don't annoy this guy!" We were both well within 'zapping range' of this fellow. I could just picture the water lighting up with an electric blue blaze and me and Scott getting plugged into an underwater Redondo Beach electric light socket.
But, the strobes are flashing away furiously and there's little I can do with Scott in Torpedo Ray Heaven.
After a couple minutes of this, the Big Guy finally opens one eye and looks at us lazily, as if to say, 'May I help you?'
But, Scott just moves into for a different angle, still screaming into his reg and the strobe flashes continue.
Finally, the Big Guy gets bored with all the attention and begins slowly levitating off the sandy bottom, like some giant, dark blue underwater flying saucer......and, with the briefest flick of his tail, propelled himself down into deeper waters, me and Scotty following breathlessly behind, but never really able to keep up and he disappeared into the deep shortly thereafter.
But, throughout the rest of the dive, I kept a wary out for the Big Guy, worried that we were going to bump into him again and this time he might not be in such a forgiving mood.
Still shaking our heads in wonder, we continued down into deeper depths until we hit about 96 ft. and then Scott turned us around in a slow, lazy U Turn, back up the canyon towards shore.
Back in shallower, we were cruising along the bottom and I was keeping an eye out for interesting things that might be interesting to photograph and I came across a small clump of seaweed and in the seaweed hovered the tiniest little fish.
Which looked really familiar.
No, it can't be!
A baby Giant Sea Bass? In Redondo?
I did a double take and checked the anal fin: sure enough.......it was big and dark.........it WAS a Baby Giant Sea Bass--Yee Ha!
I quickly flashed Scott to come over to confirm it and he immediately began taking shots and the strobes were flashing once again.
BGSB seem to be the perfect little underwater models: they seem to like the limelight and just hang there, turning this way, then that, as if posing and trying to give the photographer their 'best profile.'
What a little cutie.
And, to top the evening off [I swear], not 2 meters away, we came across another one, just hangin' out and Scott got shots of him as well.
Well, between the Mr. Big Torpedo Ray and and 2 Baby Giant Sea Bass, my evening was made. Right there, it was worth the drive up for!
The rest of the dive was uneventful.........we cruised back into the shallows. Scott found a Fringehead that he tried to get me to donate my finger for him to snap at, so he could get a shot of it snapping, but I didn't cooperate quite as he had hoped, not wanting to go back to San Diego with a Fringehead still hanging from my finger.
Then, in the surf zone, I followed everyone's advice about not doffing my fins in shallow water, but made the classic mistake of bragging that I had 'made it' once I found myself in 3 ft. of water, and of course, a wave came by and promptly knocked me to my knees and forced me to do the 'Redondo Beach Crawl' for a few feet before managed to get to my feet, where, to my bewilderment, I found I had somehow lost, not a fin [they were both securely in my hands], but a booty, in the surf zone, but luckily, it was still floating about and we were able to retrieve it.
All in all, it was a kick-ass dive with a great bunch of guys, who I would dive again with in a heartbeat--and, thanks, Scott for the great guided tour of Redondo Canyon and Torpedo Ray City! :)
Monday, November 19, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
A Face Only a Mother [or Diver] Could Love: Wolf Eel, Farnsworth Bank, Catalina [Note: Purple Hydrocoral at Bottom]
Monday, November 12, 2007
Rapture of the Deep on Scripps Canyon
Date: Sunday, 11-11-07
Location: Cathedral Heights, Scripps Canyon, North Branch, La Jolla, CA
Time: Noon-ish Dive Length: 35 mins
Surface Conditions: slight wind chopViz Down Below: 30-40 ft. Yee-ha! :)
Critters Seen: San Diego Dorids, Doriopsilla spaldingi, Lemon Dorids, MacFarlands, White Dorids, Vermillion Rockfish, Gopher Rockfish, Treefish, male and female Sheephead, Blacksmith, Yellow, Orange and Red Volcano Sponges, Brown and Red Gorgonians......
Max Depth: [cough, cough]......130 ft. +
Temp: 54 F.
Well, the gods were certainly with us today down below, that's for sure.We picked up NOAA Jim and 'Iron Man' Charlie and headed out under partly sunny skies and a brisk breeze out to Scripps Canyon with hopes high [we were not disappointed].
But first we had to pass through a flotilla of 4 rather large Canadian warships blockading La Jolla, about 5 miles off shore. As we approached them, at first we thought they were US warships, but we noted that they were an odd, off-white color, where US Navy ships are usually battleship grey.Then, as we passed by them, we noticed that they were flying the Canadian Maple Leaf flag. We joked that we were being [very politely] invaded by Canada. We caught some brief radio traffic between them and the US Coast Guard, who were also probably just checking that it wasn't an invasion.
[On a humorous note: on the way back to the dock after our dives, we caught the tail end of a conversation between one of the Canadian warships and some fishing vessel, the gist of the warship's end of it was [very politely] : "Sir, If you feel we have damaged any of your equipment, you may apply for damages at the Canadian consulate [but we're not going to take it up with you here, over the radio!]We'll probably never know what the hell that was all about! LOL!
Anyway, once we made it past the flotilla of invading warships, we arrived at Black's Beach and dropped anchor.It was decided that Charlie and Jim would go first and lay the line with the flashing strobe at the edge of the canyon in case of poor visibility--[HA! Boy, did that prove unnecessary!]
They came up 45 mins later shaking their heads in wonder and sputtering about the 'incredible visibility.'
For some reason, this caused me and Barb to suit up in record speed and splash in. Go figure.
Going down the anchor line, we knew it was going to be good when we could begin to see the bottom details 40 ft. below us.We left the anchor line at about 50 ft. and following the sandy bottom dotted with large Brown Gorgonians, glided towards the edge of the the canyon and dropped down into blue/black abyss.
I was so happy to be in deep water again, I assumed the sky diving position, with arms and legs spread out in flying position as we dropped down through the nearly tropically clear water.
Down and down we dropped, passing terraced outcroppings of sand and rock, dotted with Brown Gorgonians, forming undulating layers which mark your passage into the depths of the Canyon.Large schools of Blacksmith flitted about high above us as we descended, with bright shafts of sunlight sparkling all around us. The visibility was so good, we could see the next 'layer' of the Canyon as we approached it from above.
Finally, the terraced layers gave way to steep, rocky canyon walls, dropping away far below us, hundreds of feet down into the nearly bottomless abyss that is Scripps Canyon.I was finally forced to apply the brakes and skidded to halt at around 140 ft., with Barb dutifully sticking to recreational limits 10 ft above me.We have dubbed this diving technique: "Same Water Column, Different Depths." :)
At this point we began heading Southward, down into the Canyon, admiring the riot of color all around us, composed of Orange, Yellow and Volcano sponges dotted about on the ledges, until we came to the dramatic vertical walls with the huge vertical crevices, 2-3 ft. wide, cut into the face of them, marking the aptly names Cathedral Heights, which hide all sorts of marine life, such as Treefish, Gopher Rockfish, Vermillion and Copper Rockfish, who quite fearlessly come up to you to peer into your mask, as if to say, 'What the hell are you guys doing down here, anyway--are you nuts??
Gliding effortlessly Southward, we were startled to encounter a passel of divers heading our way, coming from the South. What are the odds of encountering other divers at 130 ft. on Scripps? I mean this wasn't La Jolla Shores, you know? Very few divers have access......only the people with access are the former UCSD dive club and.......Oh. Of. Course. The [locally] famous George Spalding, of Doriopsilla spaldingi fame; [note species name].Well, at least we think it was him and 2 other divers. I thought I recognized one of them by the Uwatec dive computer on his wrist and the distinctive DUI dry suit. He later emailed us to confirm that it had, in fact, been him down there at 130 ft., but failed to confirm if the second diver with the extremely FULL lobster bag had been, in fact, George. We think it's a pretty safe bet.:)
Anyway, we all waved to each other as we passed them and resumed our moseying along the canyon wall. We continued heading South at depth until our computer started becoming unhappy at us and beeping and then reluctantly began a long, slow turnaround, back to the flashing strobe.
Turning over to swim on my back, I delighted in watching my bubbles race past the canyon walls towards the sparkling surface, far above.
Ascending a bit to around 85 ft. we noticed that the terrain had changed back to the terraces sand slopes, covered in Gorgonians, with numerous San Diego Dorids,, Lemon Dorids, MacFarlands, White Dorids scattered about, as well as, through a remarkable coincidence, several Doriopsilla spaldingi--see what a sighting of George underwater will do for you?
Gliding up towards 75 ft. we were able to see our trusty strobe flashing away in the distance, but due to the degree of annoyance being displayed on our computers, elected not to go back down to retrieve it, but continued on up towards the anchor line, shallower depths and the boat.We surfaced, happy and satisfied that we had paid another visit to the deep and one of the best wall dives in all of Southern Califorinia!
