Full Disclosure: I have been informed by those who know much more about marine life than I do, that most species of shark, because they do not give ‘live birth,’ are not likely to show ‘any’ maternal instinct towards their young whatsoever.

I will bow to those who are more knowledgeable than myself and confess I may have reported the facts correctly, but drawn the wrong conclusions. What’s yours?

Date: 5/18/06

Time: 7:00pm

Location: LJS Cabezon cruiser area

Depth: 130ft

Time: 44mins

Mix: 28%

We first came across what I surmised was one of her young, a cute little guy, about 4 inches long, quietly minding his own business in about 20 ft. of water, near some clumps of kelp and and algae.

Then, a few feet further down, we came across Mom, about 2-3 ft. in size, happily munching on what appeared to be what was left of a crab–at least I thought I saw a crab leg sticking out of her mouth.

We paused for while to watch her munch and then Peter moved on and, I chose to linger for a while to watch her, not realizing I had put myself between her and the baby.

Stupid me: Rule #1: in the wild: never get between a mother and her young.

After she finished munching on the crab, she eyed me a bit warily for a bit and then took off, in a circular fashion, as if to lead me away from the area.

So, naturally, I followed her for a while, in small circles, which kept getting wider and wider, as we moved away from the area. Then, she doubled back out of view and I thought she was gone.

Finally, I figured I had followed her far enough and had already turned to leave and catch up with Peter, and had turned to go, when I felt a series of sharp blows on my upper leg: whap! whap! whap! in quick succession, which quite honestly scared the @#$% out of me.

I didn’t turn to see where she was, I just moved my finning into Star Trek Warp Speed and got the hell out of there, not wanting to linger to face any further wrath from Mom.

To be honest, I don’t know if she rammed me or somehow whipped me with her tail: I didn’t turn around to find out.

It’s possible I collided with her accidentally in the dark, but the way I felt the blows in rapid succession like that, ‘one-two-three,’ made me think it was deliberate on her part, to get me out of the area.

I never thought that Horn Sharks ever exhibited ‘maternal behavior’ like that [any marine biologists out there what to email me offline with comments?]……but, next time I’m going to think twice before putting myself between Mom and her kids.

Date: 5/14/06

Location: La Jolla Shores, ‘Jackie’s Cave,’ just North of Cruiser at 111ft.

–113 ft., depending on tide.

Time: Noon

Surf: 1-2 ft.

Viz in Shallows 20 ft.

Viz at Depth: 30 ft. +

Max Depth: 130 ft.

Mix: 28%

Critters Seen: Male and Female Sheephead, Vermillion Rockfish, Bubble Snails

[everywhere], Pipefish, Blacksmith, California Sea Slugs, and a baby Horn

Shark

Under a hazy sun, Barbara and I tasked Jackie with finding ‘her’ little cave

as the goal of the dive, so we wasted no time in suiting up and jumping in.

We kicked out from the bathrooms at Vallecitos and swam out until the trusty

depth finder read ’45 ft.’

Barbara was videoing, so she instructed me and Jackie to ‘drop down

together, so she could film us descending.

I guess I was a little too anxious to get to the bottom because when you

look at the video, you see me and Jackie dropping down together, then, as if

attached to a stone, I drop below the range of the viewfinder and Jackie

turns to the camera and does a hilarious ‘Whaddya gonna do?’ gesture as I

drop out sight.

I guess we’re all hams at heart, eh?

We continued down into the canyon and were absolutely astounded at the viz:

you could see all the way down the detritus pits and the canyon bluffs on

either side. As Terry S. mentioned, the viz had to be 40 ft., but I wasn’t

able to measure it this time with the depth finder, due to the nature of

the topography in this area.

Barbara stopped at the canyon rim to film something and our little party

came to a halt. I’ll admit I was anxious to ‘get down there,’ so I swam back

up to what she was filming and we all gathered around for a bit [some tiny

thing on a piece of kelp], until, finally, able to stand it no longer, I

impatiently tapped my computer, hinting that I wanted to ‘get on’ with the

dive, impatient bum that I am. Photographers hate me.

So, we resumed our descent down to around 113 ft., turning our heads this

way and that to take in the incredible view of the detritus pits and canyon

bluffs sloping away from us on either side, down into the deep.

Suddenly, from my left, I noticed a rather large male Sheephead cruising

along in the water column, right at the depth we were at. He was heading

straight West in my direction, so I banked towards him to point him out to

Barbara, so she could film him. As I approached, he did an abrupt about face

and began heading straight East, towards the canyon wall.

I had a feeling about this guy, so we all followed him back in the

direction he came, and then, sure enough, with the camera rollling, he led

us directly to the cluster of rocks that form around ‘Jackie’s Cave.’ I knew

it! I had a feeling he might have just come from the little cave and was

simply patrolling the area when we came into view.

He zipped directly into the cave as if to escape us, but we were right on

his tail and followed him right up to the entrance, with Barbara on my

left, and Jackie to my right. I shone my light briefly into the cave and

saw him in there, along with a female Sheephead and several Vermillion

Rockfish.

Satisfied that we had found Jackie’s ‘cave-let,’ I backed away to let the

ladies explore it and take some more footage.

As Barbara practically inserted herself headfirst into the cave to get more

video, I decided to drop down into the draw a bit to see what was below.

So while they stayed at the cave, I dropped down to around 130 and amused

myself gathering trash from the pit. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my goody

bag and was limited to what I could hold in my hands, which wasn’t much.

After playing around in the pit for a while, I looked up to see an amazing

sight: 15 ft. above me, I could see Barbara filming inside the cave, and 15

ft. above her, hovering like a yellow and black hummingbird above ‘her’

cave, was Jackie, suspended in the water column, taking it all in.

Combined with the spectacular view of the canyon walls on either side, it

was truly an amazing day to be in the canyon, used to, as we are, 5-8 ft.

visibility.

So, I decided to join the fun and ascended a bit, up to where Jackie was

‘hovering,’ above the cave, at around 100 ft. and was treated to an even

more spectacular view of the canyon bluffs on either side of the cave,

dropping down and away from view far below us, with schools of Blacksmith

fish flitting about this way and that out in the water column.

Jackie stretched her arms out, as if to say, ‘Look at this viz!’ and then

celebrated by doing a complete somersault suspended in the water column.

What a day!

Finally, Barbara finished filming the Sheephead inside the cave and we began

our ascent back up the canyon wall to the shallows, where there were Bubble

Snails and California Sea Slugs everywhere along the bottom.

By prior agreement, we left Barbara to do some more filming in shallow

water, as Jackie and made our way back towards shore.

We came across a couple Pipe fish playing ‘peek-a-boo’ from behind strands

of kelp and several Decorator Crabs scuttling across the bottom, hoping we

hadn’t seen them—AH! We gently let them swim through our fingers, before

moving on.

Later, Barbara told us she found and filmed a baby Hornshark in the eel

grass, so, all in all, it was absolutely spectacular day to be in the canyon

and was worth every bit of hassle finding a place to park.