Diving Anacapa Island with the Vision November 11, 2017

During the night the Vision journeyed north from Santa Catalina Island to Anacapa Island - back into its "home" territory, the northern Channel Islands, so that we could make multiple dives and still leave in time to get us back to port in Santa Barbara by 5 pm.  The first dive was at Coral Reef Pinnacle, the second site was Portuguese Rock.

Coral Reef Pinnacle is a bit deep, it was 70 ft to the top of the Pinnacle and it was easy to break 100 ft on the slopes so I paid close attention both to my saturation and my draining core temperature through my compressed wetsuit.  Here are some photos from my dive at Coral Reef Pinnacle, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GWxGv3iC9SbTcmM92

                        The Pinnacle is shrouded in tens of thousands of multi-colored brittle stars!

                               Treefish

                             Treefish with more brittle stars.  Lots more.

      Photo bombing Senorita on the left and a camouflaged Cabezon on the right.

Cabezon with a juvenile Sheephead, you can just make out a couple divers in the background (the top of the Pinnacle became well populated as folks avoided to much nitrogen saturation), you can also just make out the Vision in the top background far above us.

                                                 Spiny lobster

                                          Another Cabezon up on the shallowest part of the Pinnacle

 Back up the anchor line for my safety stop and soon after, back aboard the Vision for my second breakfast!

Our second dive site of the day, and the last for our six day trip, was Portuguese Rock.  It's a beautiful, shallow site and we had great light and great visibility.  Could have made two dives on this site and I sure was tempted but I was facing a 400 mile drive home that night so I wanted to dive, shower off, eat an early lunch and get in a good nap during the three hour trip back to the dock.  Here's some pictures from this dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UsOGCat4zeZ8Wev62

Great light, beautiful stands of Giant Kelp, calm conditions, no significant current.  Portuguese Rock was a great final dive site for a great trip.

Beautiful Island Kelpfish

Pacific Whitefish, another new fish subject for me

Another, and the final, Giant Kelpfish for this trip.

I managed to get a half decent picture of this tiny, colorful, nudibranch, Mexicanis portorae ,  less than a quarter inch long, with my wide angle lens...

Spanish Shawl Nudibranch, about 1 1/2 inches long, again, not bad given I was shooting with my Tokina 10-17 mm fisheye wide angle lens.

Another, and my final, for this trip, beautiful Island Kelpfish

    Back to the Vision for my final boarding of the trip.

Great trip, great weather, great conditions, great photo subjects, some of which were new to me, outstanding food and plenty of it!  I'm already signed up for Richard Salas' trip next November.

Giant Black Sea Bass at Santa Catalina Island! November 10,2017

Last Friday I had a couple really memorable dives on Eagle Reef off Santa Catalina Island.  I saw Giant Black Sea Bass on each of three dives and I had a long encounter with a six foot, at least 400 lb Bass and shot several pictures and videos as well.  I saw one Giant Black Sea Bass, also near Catalina, last year, this year I finally got to take pictures as well.  I grew up in Florida which has the comparable, but different, Goliath Grouper which I got to photography several times in our long Florida visit in 2015.  Below are some photos from these three dives, which included much more than Black Sea Bass, for more please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SnZ5TAffwLot90Vi2

Eagle Reef, Santa Catalina Island

Though I was shooting with my fisheye lens, a Tokina 10-17 mm wide angle, I've learned that I can get ok pictures of very small subjects as well due to the ability to focus on very close subjects.  I couldn't resist getting another photo of Yellow Zoanthids and Bluebanded Gobies.  While shooting these, I happened to spot a large fin under a rock and discovered another Horned Shark to photo.

                               Horned Shark, this is only the second time I've got to photo one of these.

While shooting the Horned Shark thanks to shooting the Yellow Zoanthids, I spotted another favorite, usually shy, subject, a Treefish.

Ok, not a great photo, but I couldn't resist getting a shot with both a Treefish and a Horned Shark!

The Vision, you can just make it out in the background of this "looking up" shot, was nicely positioned near large rocks in shallow water which were great for outgassing before surfacing after spending time at 80 ft with Black Sea Bass (I saw two on this first dive but not close enough to photo).

Another shot of irresistible Bluebanded Gobies in shallow water before I ascended.

 On my second dive I went down to 80 ft and just parked on a large boulder and waited.  I almost missed finally getting a picture of this huge Black Sea Bass because he passed behind me at a shallower depth upslope from me.  On my next dive I had lots of time with this Giant, easily identifiable due to the prominent split at the top of his tail.

There was a large school of Chub Mackerel in the shallows as I ascended towards the Vision.

 Yes, I would say there was a plethora of Chub Mackerel.

I quickly inhaled my lunch and I splashed for my third dive well ahead of anyone else so I had the dive site to myself.  Having listened carefully to several fellow divers about their Black Sea Bass encounters, I followed the rock ridge that started just to starboard of the Vision down to its end at 77 ft, as I rounded the corner an enormous tailfin came into view inches from my face, I slowly rolled right and kept descending in order to avoid startling the Giant.

Once I was well past the Black Sea Bass, I took a picture.  He was at least 6 ft long, probably at least 400lbs.  It is great that this Giants are making a comeback thanks to complete protection after nearly being annihilated thirty years ago.

I took a number of pictures of this awesome fish and I resisted the urge to get closer because I didn't want to make him move before my fellow dives got a chance to see him.

While maintaining my distance from the Giant a second Black Sea Bass, still enormous but about half the size of the first, paid us a visit and passed between me and my first subject.

Here's a zoomed in closeup of the second Black Sea Bass.  He or she had quite a few "bugs" on his head, no wonder cleaning stations are so popular with large fish!

I resisted the urge to try to shoot a selfie with this beauty and instead, shot some video, which requires quite some reconfiguration with my Canon Rebel T2-i.  These are shot with natural light, 80 ft down so you can tell the visibility and sunlight were good, though the sensitivity the camera has is impressive.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xCyl-tyH1Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB6ef5xbRd0

As I made my way back up the slope to my safety stop I was able to capture a shot of a Senorita (small fish just right of center in photo) cleaning Halfmoons.

After this dive we moved over to Emerald Bay for our final dive of the day.  It was anti climatic after the Giant Black Sea Bass encounters.

For a few more pictures from my dive at Emerald Bay, Santa Catalina, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GImHOfpBvh1EwFpM2

Santa Catalina Island with the Vision November 9, 2017

Last Thursday on our six day trip, the Vision took us for a dive at the Ellen and Elly offshore oil platform and then back to Santa Catalina for dives at Hen's Rock and Long Point.  I didn't take any pictures at the oil platform (the pictures I took last year were with far better visibility and light than this year) because of a camera battery failure.  It was not very clear and very green with lots of plankton at the oil platform, seven miles off LA so everyone voted for a return to Santa Catalina for the rest of our dives.

Hen's Rock

Below are some shots from my dive at Hen's Rock, for more, please go to: 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3J9ePrlzgWXqkL353

Round Stingray, he was skittish so I didn't get a good shot of him.

    A large school of Sargo.  This is the first time I've seen this type of fish, or this schooling behavior.  They were shy so I didn't get good closeup.

   Garibaldi, Long Point

 Abalone, not sure what kind, with a Bluebanded Goby and a Blacksmith.

Bluebanded Gobies with a sea urchin.

 This is a new type of fish for me, it is some species of Kelpfish, TBD.

                                         TBD Kelpfish, this is the first time I've seen this fish, I saw three different individuals on this dive, all in less than 20 ft of water.

To see more from this dive at Long Point, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AokXtQjhZjpzvIjJ3

Diving San Clemente with the Vision November 8, 2017

We again had a very calm crossing, this time for our third day of diving was at San Clemente Island.  This was my first time to San Clemente.  Dive boats are supposed to get the Navy's permission before diving at San Clemente, permission is not frequently given becasue they want free rein on all their training activities.  The captain thought we could tuck into the NW corner of the island without getting immediately chased off and, fortunately, he was correct.  The first dive site was "Nine Fathoms", I made two dives at this site, below are some pictures from these dives, for more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zyutxrKq5HSQCoJt2  .  I enjoyed the 60 ft visibility and great light, I didn't enjoy the 54 degree water temp at 65 ft, so my wetsuit was quite compressed, so much.  Happily, the water temp warmed to 59 degrees, probably associated with water moving in with the current, for the second dive.  We had significant current come up during the first dive - I had some real work getting back to the boat.  The second dive at this site was made by using the bow entry, grabbing a current line to pull yourself forward to the bow anchor line and then pulling your way down the bow anchor line.  Once you were down 20 ft or so the current was very manageable with minor effort.  I made sure I could find the anchor in order to make a safe ascent back to the boat at the end of my dive.

Dawn, San Clemente Island

                  Red Gorgonia and Treefish

                                            Great light at 60 ft!

                      I didn't see another diver on my first dive until I started getting back into the neighborhood the Vision was anchored in.

Another Giant Kelpfish!

                                         Juvenile Garibaldi with jewel spots

 Making my way up the anchor line for my safety stop in strong current at the end of my second dive at Nine Fathoms site.

The second dive site at San Clemente Island was NW Harbor.  Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AfHwZvrs7k0Nnoq62

NW Harbor (the dive site named for a dive area off San Clemente's NW Harbor) was shallower with a dense, beautiful kelp forest, it also was shallower and didn't have a strong current.  This seascape view was at about 45 ft, look at the light and the visibility!

                            Once more, lots of small "bugs" but no large ones so I didn't bring home spiny lobster from this trip...

Beautiful Giant Kelp growth to photo during my safety stop.

Back to the Vision to wrap up another great day of diving.