Dive #1 [Actual: #694]
Date: May 26, 2007
Time: 11:40 am
Location: Coastkeeper/Hill St. Survey Site #3
Dive Length: 43 mins
Max Depth: 40 ft.
Surface Conditions: flat as glass.
Viz: horizontal: 15-20 ft./vertical: 40 ft. [!]
Temp: a toasty 57%
Purpose: conduct quadrat and band transect surveys of bottom dwelling marine life
We picked up NOAA Jim and our biologist with San Diego Coastkeeper, Colleen, and headed out under cloudy skies to our favorite Pt. Loma survey spot.
Upon arrival, one look down into the water told us that viz was going to be good: we could see rocks on the bottom 40 ft. below the boat.
It was decided that Colleen and Barbara would descend first, lay down the transect line and Jim and I would follow to do our band transect survey.
When Colleen and Barb were finally in the water, on the surface, Colleen accidentally dropped the tape reel and we could see it drop all the way down to the bottom, 40 ft below. When we saw that, we knew viz was going to be good!
After the ladies had laid the transect line and done their surveys, Jim and I jumped in and descended down through Giant Macrocystis to the rocky bottom below.
The tape ran 30 meters through a thick field of short, Southern Palm fronds about 18 inches high, which covered the bottom and made spotting sessile and other bottom-dwelling marine life on my list a bit tough, because it kept swaying into my field of vision, blocking my view of the bottom.
Combined with a small surge on the bottom which caused us to rock and roll about 24 inches in each direction added to the challenge. But, finally, we made it up one end and back to the other with all marine life noted on our slates; mainly Giant Spiny Starfish and a couple Kellet’s Welks w/eggs.
However, because the band transect only took about 20 mins and we still had plenty of air left over, we decided to to a quick ‘fun dive’ up about 50 yards further East and then back again, passing beyond the Southern Palm field and into some thick Macrocystis clumps, populated by thick schools of Senoritas and Blacksmith.
After about 40 mins, we came back under the boat and, looking up, we could clearly see the boat and the ladder hanging under it, like something straight out of a photo from Scuba Diver Magazine, from the bottom at 40 ft. Absolutely tropical visibility.
Dive #2 [Actual #695]
Location: same as above
Time: 2 pm
Dive Length: 53 mins
Max Depth: 35 ft.
Viz: a bit less on second dive: 8-10 ft.
Purpose: band transect survey and roving fish count
After a leisurely lunch of cheese sandwiches and chocolate chips cookies, we still had one more survey to do; this time, Colleen decided that once we were done with the band transect surveys, we could supplement them with a couple roving fish counts.
So, after Barb and Colleen were done with theirs, Jim and I jumped into the water.
By late afternoon, as is common in Pt. Loma, the surge had picked up and horizontal viz had dropped to around 8-10 ft., but we did our band transect survey, again in the dense field of Southern Palm and then spent about 30 mins. doing the roving fish count.
But, upon completing the surveys, we gently finned over under the boat and looking up, we could clearly see it from the bottom, which meant that the vertical viz was still around 35-40 ft., making it a truly superb day of diving, combined with some excellent data having been collected for science.
It doesn’t get much better than this, folks!
