Tag: fish
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Chamber Day 2013 and Catalina Kelp Diving
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013, marked the 25th annual Chamber Day on Catalina. The event benefits Catalina’s hyperbaric chamber, the only hyperbaric chamber in Southern California that is exclusively dedicated to the treatment of diving accidents. The Chamber, which is staffed 24/7/365 by volunteers, derives over half of its annual budget from Chamber Day proceeds. We…
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13 More Photos from Diving the Oil Rigs and the Wreck of the Olympic
Another dive trip to the oil rigs off Long Beach came and went recently, with the typical trifecta of sites: the wreck of the Olympic, the Eureka rig, and the Ellen-Elly twin rigs. The swell prediction leading up to the trip was not encouraging, and surface conditions the day of the trip did not bring…
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Tech Diving Catalina Island and the California Oil Rigs
Southern California Tech Diving with Ocean Research Group This past weekend, I attended my first Ocean Research Group technical dive trip on the Sand Dollar out to Catalina Island, California. As a fledgling SoCal tech diver, it was pretty cool to do some “big kid” deep dives under the guidance of experienced divers and instructors. I’m also…
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Curaçao: Claws, Jaws, and Cephalopods
Just some crustaceans, eels, and mollusks we encountered on our recent scuba diving trip to Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles: Banded coral shrimp… The batwing coral crab… The red reef hermit crab… The white speckled hermit crab… Banded clinging crabs… which I think are just ADORABLE… Spotted cleaner shrimp… The perennially-grumpy…
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Why I Dive: Sea Lion Edition
People ask me all the time why I dive here in California. Maybe they’ve gone for a dive or a snorkel in Hawaii or the Caribbean, and they know the water here is so much colder and darker and less clear. I’ve lost count of how many times they’ve asked, incredulously, “Is there anything to…
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Snorkeling with Leopard Sharks at the Marine Room!
Yeah, I usually dive. But it was a sunny day, and the shallow water was clear. And who wants to put on a drysuit and carry all that heavy scuba equipment across the beach in the hot sun? Not me, not yesterday. But the leopard sharks have moved in at La Jolla. And I had…
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Operation: Black Sea Nettle is a success!
One of my (many) favorite things about scuba diving in San Diego is the constant turnover of animal populations. I’ve lived and dove here for less than a year, and already I’ve been witness to the market squid run and the bat ray invasion. I was there when the juvenile rockfish moved in at La Jolla Shores,…
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Diving with whale sharks in Placencia, Belize
Who wouldn’t want to swim with whale sharks? We certainly did–so when we realized that our anniversary trip to Belize was going to coincide with the May full moon (that is to say, smack in the middle of Belize whale shark season), we shuffled our itinerary around to include a couple of days in Placencia,…
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Diving La Jolla Cove
When I mention it, local divers are always shocked to hear I’ve never been to La Jolla Cove. NO LONGER! On Tuesday, Tedd and I set out to rectify the never-dove-the-Cove situation once and for all. Surface conditions were beautiful, with gentle 1-2-foot waves, plentiful sunshine, and no wind. We waded in and swam out…
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Diving San Diego’s Wreck Alley and Kelp Forest
I spent Memorial Day diving with my friends at San Diego dive boat Marissa Charters in Wreck Alley and the Point Loma kelp beds. It’s always nice to be out on the boat, but Monday was amazing! We had great weather topside and pretty good visibility out on our dives! HMCS Yukon HMCS Yukon is a…