I confess: I dropped the ball this year.

With reports coming in hot and heavy of a major Squid Run in the making, with recent rain and run-off exceeding .20 for this weekend, I let foul weather deter me from diving this weekend.

But, thanks to brave souls like James Swanson, who managed to slip in a quick dive in between back-to-back rain storms, we were able to get some shots of these puppies ‘in flagrante.’

My apologies to all those who called, wanting to come down and dive between rains storms: I wimped out–plain and simple.

And, may have missed the biggest squid run in a decade.

In my defense: coastal runoff levels for San Diego [and, therefore bacteria levels in the water] were at .60 before the rainstorm due tonight, and the cutoff point for safe diving is .20.

It won’t happen again: may the fleas of a thousand camels invade my armpits.

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

Date: January 20, 2008

Time: 10:30 AM

Location: Wreck Alley, Yukon

Surface conditions: calm

Visibility: 10 to 15 feet

Temperature: 54°

Mix: 30%

Max Depth: 103 ft.

Critters Seen: blacksmith fish, surf perch, painted greenlings,
senoritas, giant kelpfish, California Sea cucumbers

With Barbara still out, and one other person calling off sick, it was
just me, NOAA Jim and Merrianne today on the Yukon.

We motored out under cloudy skies and calm seas towards the Yukon to
find the well known red and white charter boat already tied up to the
forward guns, so we decided to tie up to the radio tower.

Since NOAA Jim was going to be on his scooter, the plan was for me and
Merrianne to drop down the radio tower and I would do Reef survey
while NOAA Jim zoomed around the ship looking for treasure, i.e.
Dropped diver equipment.

So Merrianne and I drop down into the green gloom to find 12 to 15
foot visibility and literally hundreds of blacksmith fish swarming the
deck of the Yukon, causing me to instantly decide not to do a fish
count, but count invertebrates instead, so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

We made our way toward the mortar bay, where I was able to duck down
into the lobster trap hole, and find myself some California Sea
cucumbers to put on my slate, without causing the usual avalanche.

From here we ducked down under the Yukon to check out the sea bass
which like to live in the sand underneath, and from here we cruised
around the stern and up over of the giant propellers towards graffiti
alley, where we heard the distinct whine of a scooter engine coming
towards us, followed by the approaching light of NOAA Jim’s scooter up
ahead.

As Jim zoomed by us, I’d made the hand motion for a ‘video camera
running’ to Merrianne, to reminder her that we were on Candid Camera
whenever Jim pointed his scooter at us.

From here Merrianne and I slowly rose up and over the hull and
allowed ourselves to be carried over the top through the mini-kelp
forest on the starboard side and down over onto the deck, where we
ended up almost where we started, and on the radio tower.

Due to the fact that we had dallied under the Yukon, we noticed that
we were going into deco, and realized it was time to head for the
surface.

We had fun on the way up playing with the rather large Senoritas which
congregated rather aggressively I might add, around as at the safety
stop level, nibbling at something on the line, which we could not make
out.

All in all, it was a nice relaxing dive on the Lady Yuke, I got a Reef
Survey done and everyone went home happy!

[This dive report dictated into voice recognition software]

–

Date: 1-17-08

Location: La Jolla Shores, Vallecitos Pt.

Time: 7-ish

Dive Length: 50 mins

Surf: small, 1 to 2 feet going out, 2 to 3 feet coming back in

Visibility: 8 to 10 feet

Temperature: 54°

Maximum depth: 90 feet

Mix: 30%

Critters seen: swimming crabs, round will rays, thornback rays, topsmelt and hundreds of Market squid

It was so good to get in the water last night, after two dry weekends and we were amply rewarded for our recent abstinence.

Barbara was out with a pinched nerve, so I met up with Merrianne and Phil from Arkansas, who was out here for some SQL training classes. Having been to 170 feet on the Oriskany in Florida and done body recoveries in lakes, Phil was no beginner.

We wadded out through the knee high surf and kicked our way West until we were in about 40 feet of water according to our trusty depth finder.

We drop down to the sandy bottom, and began heading west to the canyon edge.

At around 60 feet, we began seeing squid egg sacs scattered here and there. As we headed further west, they became more numerous, along with the occasional squid.

Right around 70 feet, the occasional squid became squid everywhere: laying eggs, fighting, mating and eating. They became attracted to our lights, and boom! before we knew it, they were ricocheting off our masks, as they zoomed in for a closer look at us.

Phil had brought his high definition Sony video camera and was having the time of his life getting all these squid on video. They definitely do not have squid in the lakes of Arkansas.

Having all these squid bouncing off us was momentarily disorienting, but we managed to refocus on our compasses and make our way to the edge of the canyon and drop.

The squid began thinning out at around 80 feet, and by the time we hit 90 and began heading south, I feared we had seen the last of them. But, they had one more surprise in store for us.

As we headed along the canyon wall at 90 feet, just as we are coming around the bend, I caught sight of something very large and silvery out of the corner of my eye: from the deeper waters of the canyon on our right, a long, silvery freight train, about 100 feet long, was hurtling its way toward us.

We all had to duck down as this huge train of Market squid flashed by us, directly over our heads, heading east.

As we hunkered down, this long silvery stream of squid seem to never end as it roared by us, heading for shallow water.

Finally, it ended, and we all looked at each other in amazement, having had the rare privilege of seeing this annual event in all its glory.

We made our way south until we hit our turnaround point and then headed back north the way we came.

Oddly, on the way back there were not nearly as many squid. However, we had a strong tailwind current pushing us, and we ended up surfacing North of the main lifeguard tower, which was quite a bit further north than where we had come in.

I received some good natured ribbing about my questionable navigation skills, but I was able to fall back on the old standby: we had a strong current pushing us, plus my skills had become rusty , due to not being able to dive recently because of crappy conditions. Much eye-rolling and good natured razzing followed at this point, but everyone had had a great time and Phil had bagged some unforgettable footage of market squid mating, fighting and laying eggs to take home to Arkansas.

Redondo beach divers: keep an eye out for these puppies on your night dives: for if they are in San Diego, they may be headed your way soon, if they’re not there already.

[This dive report was dictated to voice recognition software.]

For more on what really happens on a Squid Run, see this fascinating article by Marty Snyderman:

http://www.dtmag.com/Stories/Marine%20Life/12-99-ecoseas.htm