REEF Survey on Scripps Canyon/La Jolla Cove

[caption id=”attachment_6756" align=”aligncenter” width=”480" caption=”Fried Egg Jellyfish on Scripps Canyon”]

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Dive #1 Location: Scripps Canyon, North Branch: Cathedral Heights

Time: 11:50 am Surface Conditions: flat

Max Depth: 140 ft Temps: sorry, dive computer refusing to download temp data

Vis: 15–20 ft., depending on depth Dive Buddies: Dave and Julie [NOAA Jim was solo with scooter and pony bottle]

Marine Life Observed: Swell sharks, Red Gorgonians, Yellow Sponges, Orange Sponges, Orange Puffballs, Fried Egg Jellies San Diego Dorid, Monterey Dorid, Rockfish, Blacksmith, Rockfish ‘Young of the Year’ [YOY]

Highlights:

— calm, flat seas, but cloudy on the way out

— visibility was good in the canyon and I’ll admit we were a bit deep to be doing a marine life survey — it took me a while to decipher what I had written later — but, the wall was a riot of red, orange and yellow colors as we passed by Gorgonians and brightly colored sponges on our way South, before turning around and heading back the way we came, only to be greeted to two large Fried Egg Jellies, one of which tried to land on Julies head, but was so prevented by a quick-thinking Dave.

Julie gets the credit for finding the Swell sharks, hiding way back in a horizontal crevice on the wall face.

Dive #2:

Location: La Jolla Cove, over by Buoy B

Max Depth: 46 ft

Viz: varied from about 6 ft to as good as 20 ft in some places

Buddies: Julie and Dave Marine Life Observed: hundreds of Calico Bass, a few Geribaldis, Opaleyes, Rubberlips, Blacksmith, Keyhole Limpets, Northern Sea Palm, some Macrocystis, Southern Kelp Crab and a large Sheepcrab, which pinched me pretty hard….

Highlights: — admittedly a bit disappointing since we saw no Sevengills, which had been our purpose in coming here, but otherwise, it was a good dive and Dave hopefully got some decent marine life shots, including the Sheepcrab who pinched me pretty hard when I tried to maneuver him into ‘range’ for Dave. We later found out from the Scuba Diver Girls that we’ve been anchoring too far North of the Cove and actually need to be closer to Boomer and Alligator Reef, so we’ll try that next time……..oh, and naturally, they went out to the Cove today and saw not one, but two! ‘nuther day in Paradise, folks!