Date: Friday, Feb. 19, 2010

Location: Yukon, Wreck Alley

Time: 7:30 pm

Temp: 59

Viz: 12′ -15′ everywhere – hazy

Surface: mild wind chop – face slappers building

Buddies: Mike B., Barbara, NOAA Jim

Photos: Pending Upload–watch this space.

We motored out under a semi cloudy night, with only a bit of chop/swells. In no time, we were moored to the stern of the Yukon. It’s very cool at night, just 3 moorings bobbing in pitch darkness, with no other boats around. The team of Barbara and Jim rolled in first. Barbara had “the beast” with her, for some video, and Jim had his trusty scooter.

Mike and I got ourselves ready, and soon Jim returned to report good conditions at depth, followed by Barbara a few minutes later.

I had taken the mecclizine a bit too late, so getting a bit green around the gills, I finished gearing up with one eye closed, or both.

We finally dropped below the building chop, into calmness, and glided down. The kelp was swaying a bit, but as soon as you got along the ship it was fine.

Usual critters include Kelp Perch, Greenlings, Blacksmiths, Rockfish, Starfish, and some transparent blue-ish copepods (?) in the water column. It’s always nice to see so many Metridiums too.

A Decorator Crab wore a lovely Strawberry Anem. chapeau and a Lobster was repelling.

A big fat Harbor Seal made a guest appearance, using our lights to feed, and causing a mess of silt as it shimmied through some structure.

It chewed a fish right in front of me and of course I had just stopped rolling video.

Back up the mooring line we finally headed, and were greeted with a fresh water rinse.

I found it’s nice to keep the mask on as the water drops feel like beebees ricocheting off your face as the boat speeds back to shore.

A great dive!

Jackie

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251711/Every-dolphins-gone-surfin-Stunning-pictures-hundreds-glide-monster-waves.html

Note: for copyright reasons, only the link can be shown here.

I’ve often spoken about the need to visualize in scuba diving. We simply don’t encounter that many accidents/gear malfunctions to maintain a proper state of readiness when these things occur without utilizing the skill of 1) Visualization and 2) Practice.

Visualization: At its base level, visualization means 1) Thinking about your dive before you do it 2) Going over in your minds eye things that could go wrong and what, specifically, you’d do to address them. Not just things that could happen to you, but other divers as well.

What if you’re doing a surface interval on a dive boat, sandwich in hand, and another diver appears on the surface face down and unmoving. What would you do? Accidents occur at exactly the moment you’re not expecting anything. (Rescue training should be REQUIRED for all divers.)
Alternate air sharing- thinking about this and actually practicing it while on a dive is important. Why not, at the beginning of your next dive, tell your buddy you want to do an air-sharing drill first thing upon submerging. Easy and fun.

At the end of your next dive, as you’re standing at your de-gearing spot, close your eyes and visualize yourself in a spot of trouble underwater. So much trouble, in fact, that you’re forced to ditch your weights. Now pull both your weight pouches out. If you’re on the grass let them drop out of your hands (watch your toes). If you’re on a boat lay them gently on the deck. Took you fifteen seconds, but it could save your life. (Seems a LOT of accidents occur due to negative buoyancy/panic situations.) Make this movement a MUSCLE MEMORY movement.

–Many thanks to Bill Powers for this excellent idea!

La Jolla – Part 2 from David R. Andrew on Vimeo.

Used with Permission/All Rights Reserved

Used with Permission/All Rights Reserved

One of San Diego’s most fascinating underwater denizens is the lion nudibranch.

What is a “nudibranch” you may ask? It comes from the two words, Latin and Greek, respectively, meaning “naked gill” and it is the marine country cousin, so to speak of the common garden slug, but much more colorful. It is called “naked gill” due to the fact that in nudibranchs, the gills are external to the body.

The lion nudibranch, is a predatory sea slug which grows up to 4 inches long, with an expanded hood about 3 inches, which expands out into the water to catch microplankton in the water.

See below for more: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-38501-San-Diego-Scuba-Diving-Examiner~y2010m2d12-San-Diego-marine-life-lion-nudibranchs-in-La-Jolla

QUEENSLAND, Australia — Most people wouldn’t give a second thought to the inner workings of the fish eye.

But research by University of Queensland scientists is unlocking the secrets hidden behind these fishy lenses.

Professor Justin Marshall, and colleagues from the Sensory Neurobiology

Group within UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute, have found, for the first time, how certain types of fish see color.

Professor Marshall’s work revolves around the role double cones play in the vision of trigger fishes.

See here for more: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=56319082104