Crazy Animal Antics at Breakwater Cove

For the first time in over a long, trying year, I finally had the energy to put on a drysuit and do some cold water diving. Mark and I got together with our friend Valerie, and we decided to dive into an oldie, but goodie: the Breakwater. We had a great time, and saw some Discovery Channel-worthy animal antics.

Enjoying the 30'+ viz and the sun illuminating the kelp forest

Showing off an Abalone shell

Here is some video we shot of a juvenile Mola Mola on the Wall. This was my first time seeing this bizarre fish. It was probably good that we scared it away. The sea lions that frequent this area would have probably torn off its fins, play with it like a Frisbee, and then leave it to die.

We saw this octopus near the end of our dive at the Metridium Fields. First, I noticed the gross white appendage, which I later learned to my disgust was a Fat Innkeeper Worm. Then I saw that the end of it was attached to an octopus. If you play the video, you will first notice the octopus trying to blend in with a patch of algae, then it squirts some ink in our faces, then it tries to camouflage itself against the sand.

Before we could observe the octopus further, and the Fat Innkeeper worm it was ensconcing with, we saw a bizarre creature swimming towards us. It was a Rainbow Nudibranch, which is usually found crawling around on the sand. It only swims when evading predators. It was a bizarre sight to see.

Metridium

Octopus grabbing weird, white appendage

We got all up in this Cabezon's face. We even put a decorator crab on his head, and he didn't budge.

Shrimp feeding on a dead Mola Mola at Metridium Fields.

We saw two dead or dying Mola Mola at Metridium Fields. They had had their fins torn off by sea lions. Mark felt sorry for one and tried to right it and send it on its way. However, without fins, it could not get very far and ended up flat on the sand once again. However sad this scene was, I'm glad I have such an empathetic, compassionate husband!

Metridium Fields

I've never managed to swim to the Metridium Fields from shore before. Valerie showed us how:

1. Line up with the pump house at Breakwater cove.
2. Swim out perpendicular to shore past the kelp beds.
3. Descend and head towards the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
4. You should encounter a pipe about 2 feet in diameter. Follow it to its end.
5. Once the pipe ends, head due north for the Metridium Fields.

For more pics, go here:

Dive Details:
Dive #207: The Wall, Breakwater Cove, Monterey, CA (Dive Buddies: Mark, Valerie)
Depth/Time: 45'/0:48 minutes
Visibility: 30'
Temperature: 54 deg F
Weight, Undergarment, Tanks:

Mina: Weight-15 lbs (10 lbs on weight belt, 1 lb on ankles, 4 lbs in BCD), Undergarment-BARE undergarment without fleece top, Tank-PST HP-80.

Mark: Weight-26 lbs (10 in BCD, 14 on weight belt, 2 lbs on ankles), Undergarment-BARE undergarment with fleece top and bottom, Tank: PST HP-80.

Dive #208: Metridium Fields, Breakwater Cove, Monterey, CA (Dive Buddies: Mark, Valerie)
Depth/Time: 47'/0:50 minutes
Visibility: 7'
Temperature: 52 deg F
Weight, Undergarment, Tanks: 
Mina: Weight-13 lbs (10 lbs on weight belt, 1 lb on ankles, 2 lbs in BCD), Undergarment-BARE undergarment without fleece top, Tank-PST HP-80.
Mark: Weight-26 lbs (10 in BCD, 14 on weight belt, 2 lbs on ankles), Undergarment-BARE undergarment with fleece top and bottom, Tank: PST HP-80.

Our Affordable Hawaiian Vacation - Manta Ray Night Dives

A particularly large manta measuring 12'+ measured against the humans in the background

There are not enough superlatives that can describe the Manta rays we saw on our 3rd day on the Big Island. To be graced by these gentle giants is not just exciting, but truly an honor.

In Kona, Hawaii, resident Manta rays frequent nightly feedings and have come to associate divers' lights with plankton, and hence food.  These rays (manta birostris) are relatives of sharks, and have been reported as growing up to 25' wide. But being filter feeders, they are completely harmless to us human beings. On our manta ray night dive, these behemoths came within inches of us, and actually hit one of the divers in the head so hard, he saw stars.

As we entered the water, we heard so much screaming from the snorkelers on the surface that we thought there must have been a frat party going on. As we got situated on the bottom, we could see why.  I squealed out loud for my first 5 minutes underwater. Although the mantas come with fair regularity, it is not guaranteed that one will even see a manta ray on the nightly dives and usually manta rays number in the 5-6 range.  That night we were treated to 21 manta visitations, which hadn't occurred in months. After more than an hour in the water, the mantas would not leave us alone.  The mantas came right up to our swim ladder as we boarded the boat.

At the expense of sounding a little weird, being in the presence of these mantas made me feel like I was in the presence of good (versus evil).  One other time I've felt this way while scuba diving was when a small pod of dolphins burst in on us scuba divers while in Cozumel, Mexico. These "devilfish" are truly angels. 

I will never forget seeing these mantas so thick in the waters, that they were practically bumping into one other. I have one particular memory that I will never forget. At our safety stop on our twilight dive (before the night dive), we encountered a ginormous manta on its way to the feeding. I left the anchor line and swam belly to belly beneath this gorgeous creature before it sped off into the distance.

Mantas on our night dive

Dive Details

Dive #203: Garden Eels Twilight Dive

Depth/Time/Temp: 65'/1:04/75 deg F

Sightings:

-At least 12 mantas swam by us in anticipation of the night dive.

-zebra eel

-garden eels

-got separated at the begining of the dive

-2 green eels under a ledge

-crown of thorns

-swam belly up underneath a manta

-swam into a thick school of grunts.

-cuttlefish

Dive #204: Manta Ray Night Dive - Old Airport Dive Site

Depth/Time/Temp: 55'/1:06/75 deg F

Sightings:

-eels hunting in the open

-shrimps

-mantas circling our boat at the safety stop

-manta swallows marks head vertically

-mantas hitting one another.

-mantas hitting the boat ladder

-mark says it was totally awesome

Our Affordable Hawaiian Vacation - Introduction to Kona Diving

We were greeted to our first day on the Big Island with a wonderful breakfast at the B&B, consisting of a frittata and a fresh fruit platter made from fruits picked fresh from the farm. The passion fruit (Lilikoi), guava, papaya, rambutan and Jaboticaba platter reminded me of the twisted fruit portraiture of Giuseppe Archimboldo. Breakfast was served at the communal kitchen table with other guests. 

Exotic fruit breakfast platter

But we couldn't linger long at the kitchen table before it was soon time to go diving with Wanna Dive. Steve, the owner of Wanna Dive, was very curious about our dive experiences in Maui, and seemed defensive of how Kona diving compared. Also, Steve's Hawaiian fish species expertise, gained from a lifetime as an aquarist, as well as a divemaster, soon became apparent. True to Steve's word, everyone on the boat were experienced divers. Three of our fellow divers were family members who scuba dived in Hawaii every year (lucky them). Shirley, another diver who loves nudibranchs, and who is an Aggressor Liveaboard veteran, capped the total on the boat at 6 divers. Wanna Dive was great about letting divers dive as long as they wanted. Cathy, our divemaster, chaperoned divers to the boat each time a diver ran low on air, while letting the rest of the group continue. However, everyone stayed down for longer than an hour.

At High Rock, our first dive, we encountered a voracious 4' long sea turtle who was using all 4 flippers to grip the coral he was demolishing. If sea turtles were more self-aware, they would realize how silly they look while eating underwater. But fortunately they are not, which makes for more entertaining viewing for us. So consumed was the turtle by its food, that he didn't even notice me as I picked algae off his shell while he ate.


Our second dive consisted of a series of lava tube swimthroughs.  This was where we were ushered through Suck 'Em Up Cavern, Skull Cave, and Aquarium.  Suck 'Em Up is an interesting dive where periodic suction occurs at the exit of the lava tube. This suction makes it difficult to exit, unless you time your escape properly. In more challenging conditions, we were told that divers were sucked out of the hole in the ceiling, so we were told to avoid the champagne bubbles underneath the sky lights. In the following video, I time my exit properly, but still have a difficult time swimming completely out of the tube's pull.

Later on, we spotted 5 spotted eagle rays in a flying formation out in the deep. Cathy, our divemaster, led us out into the deep bottomless blue to get a closer look.  Despite monitoring my depth, I still ended up at 85 feet deep, and got close to running low on no-decompression time.  But it was awesome. Any dive where you see a small school of spotted eagle rays counts as a great dive in my book.

For dinner, we ate on Ali'i drive in Kailua Kona: a salad and a mai-tai rounded out my evening:

Dive Details:
Dive #201: High Rock
Depth/Time/Temp: 59'/1:22 minutes/76 deg F
Sightings:
-Big sea turtle biting off chunks of coral.
-wire coral goby
-shrimp on basket starfish
-white margin nudibranchs
-juvenile dragon wrasses

Dive #202: Suck Em Up, Skull Cave, and Aquarium
Depth/Time/Temp: 86'/1:17 minutes/77 deg F
-5 spotted eagle rays in the distance, we all swam deep off the wall to take a look. Got as deep as 85 feet.
-had 51 minutes of NDL left when DM had 7.

Our Affordable Hawaiian Vacation: 4th Day in Maui

Ornate reef structure typifies Ulua Beach-

Wailea, Maui (M. Leung)

It was our 4th day in Hawaii, and we were feeling lazy. Diving, and breathing compressed nitrogen, makes you tired.

I managed to persuade Mark to do another couple of shore dives with me, even though diving conditions were crappy the day before, and even though it was Mark's birthday.

We rented a couple of tanks from Maui Dreams Dive Company. We enjoyed meeting Teri, who is the store manager and course director there. She proposed that we dive Ulua Beach that day.

Shrimp-

Ulua Beach, Wailea, Maui

(M. Goodnow)

At the beach, we tripled up with Wade whose girlfriend doesn't dive. Wade had the courage to introduce himself to us at the beach, so of course we had to accept and dive with him.

Ulua Beach was an amazing shore dive, in spite of the 20-30' visibility. There were towering, ornate structures of coral. We saw the largest (2.5' long) pufferfish and the largest (1' long) frog fish I've ever seen. I managed to film the gigantic frog fish swimming several yards (see below). I learned later that frog fish like to stay in the same area their entire lives, so I felt enormously guilty that we disturbed it and caused it to swim such a long distance.

Video of Frog fish swimming-

Ulua Beach, Wailea, Maui (M. Leung)

Flat worm -

Ulua Beach, Wailea, Maui

(M. Goodnow)

Ulua Beach was definitely my favorite shore dive in Maui due to its interesting coral structures and the fact that I successfully navigated to the deeper second reef, and back, in poor visibility. During the dive, Mark almost got us lost and lead us to the adjacent beach, but I was constantly monitoring where we were and managed to get us back to our proper exit point.

Afternoon
It was Mark's birthday, so he got to do whatever he wanted. He elected to eat chips in bed while watching Star Wars. I really enjoyed pigging out next to him. Ah, simple pleasures.

In the evening, we walked around the beach outside of our hotel (see below). I highly recommend staying at Days Inn Maui in Kihei, Maui.  For a fraction of the cost as elsewhere, you can stay on the beach, be close to the dive operators' boat ramp, and be close to world class shore diving.

The beach outside of Days Inn Maui -
Kihei, Maui

Dinner was at Coconuts Fish House, which ironically is a restaurant named after a cat.

Mark had a craving for fish tacos-
Coconuts Fish House, Kihei, Maui

Dive Details

Dive #199: Ulua beach

Depth/Time/Temp: 43'/1:07 min/76 deg. F

Buddies: Mark and Wade

Sighted:

-biggest puffer I've ever seen: 2.5 feet long.

-huge tan frog fish bigger than my head, was told it was a female. Harassed it and it swam fast.

-turtle

-sea star legs (cut by harlequin crab)

-mark almost took us to the next beach over.

Dive #200: Ulua Beach

Depth/Time/Temp: 25'/0:54 min/77 deg. F

Buddy: Mark

Sighted:

-fuschia flat worm

-nudibranchs

-brittle star

-puffer resting (to stay out of the sandy water)

-octopus hiding in a crack

-turtle sleeping in a hole-Mina scared it and she killed some coral

Our Affordable Hawaiian Vacation - 3rd day in Maui

Shore diving is one of the most affordable activities you can do in Hawaii. Drive to any public beach, put on your scuba gear and walk into the ocean. 

A dive float is required
when shore diving in Hawaii-
Black Rock (M. Leung)

Shore diving is what we decided to do on our 3rd day in Hawaii and our 3rd day in Maui. We decided to dive at Black Rock and Old Airport Beach (Kahelili). These are two of the easiest and most popular snorkeling and dive sites in Maui.

Underwater visibility was around 50'-60' that day, which is below average. It was certainly a lot worse than the boat dives we had done the previous day, where visibility was closer to 100'. Mark was somewhat disappointed. I, on the other hand, was so enamored by how easy it was to dive in Hawaii, that I didn't care. We got to see some cool stuff, like a baby spotted eagle ray, and a voracious green sea turtle getting knocked about by the surge:

Eel--
Old Airport Beach (M. Goodnow)

Baby Spotted Eagle Ray-
Black Rock (M. Goodnow)

Crab of some sort-
Black Rock (M. Goodnow)

Afternoon

Sporting my handmade 

Plumeria flower hair piece

and nursing a Mai Tai-

Old Lahaina Luau

To help celebrate Mark's birthday, we decided to attend the Old Lahaina Luau, which is considered to be the best luau in Maui, and possibly all of Hawaii. There was a sumptuous dinner buffet, cocktails galore, and many hula dance performances. There were also crafts on site.  I learned how to make a flower hair piece, which I put behind my left ear because I'm a married woman (right ear placement symbolizes singleness). There were so many things to see and do that I didn't get to see the kalua pig get dug up from its imu pit.

At our table were a couple of girls who were staying in Paia. They told us what to see and do.  I felt sorry for them because they spent money to do expensive activities like zip-lining, when all they had to do was walk into the ocean for free, and have a more immersed and more poignant adventure. To each their own, I guess.

I was completely enraptured by the hula performances. I got the sense that this is an important art form to the native Hawaiians and is used to convey their history and their lore (in absence of having writing). When done properly, hula can transcend the hokey hip swaying the rest of the world thinks as hula dancing. When done properly, hula is dignified, and even solemn and is very beautiful to watch. Most people soaked in the performances and respected the cultural heritage behind it, with the exception of one man, who wolf-whistled the scantily clad hula dancers.

Enjoying the scenery-
Old Lahaina Luau

Kalua Pork, 2 Poke Varieties, Lomi, Taro leaf salad
and blue drink (background)-
Old Lahaina Luau

I would highly recommend attending the Old Lahaina Luau to anyone visiting Maui. There was a great respect given to Hawaiian art forms, and an attempt to really convey the history and heritage of Hawaii in song and dance. The food and cocktails can't be beat either.

We planned on doing some more shore dives the following day...

Dive Details

Dive #197: Black Rock

Depth/Time/Temperature: 34'/1:17 minutes/75 degrees F

Buddy: Mark

Weights: 6 lbs with a 3 mm wet suit shortie

Sighted:

-large turtle

-spotted eagle ray (small)

-cornetfish and trumpetfish

Dive #198: Old Airport Beach (Kahekili Beach)

Depth/Time/Temperature: 32'/1:26 minutes/75 degree F

-small ravenous turtle

-nudibranchs

-cleaner shrimp

-rainbow cleaner wrasse

-juvenile yellowtail wrasse

-white spotted damsel

-longnose, threadfin, raccoon butterfly fish

-bird wrasse

-yellow tang

-bigger tangs

-goatfish (all kinds)

-some sort of unicorn fish

-baby blue boxfish

-Humuhumu fish

Playing with (or was it harrassed by?) a Seal

Mark and I have had harbor seal encounters before on our dives in Monterey, CA. But this past Saturday, was the first time we could characterize our encounter as being "harrassed" by a seal.

Our dives were at McAbee Beach, just off Cannery Row in Monterey. McAbee beach is famous for its playful seals. It is so famous for its seals that after our dives were completed, even our friendly parking lot attendant at McAbee asked us whether we had played with the seals.

Our seal first swam in front of us to get our attention. I wanted to engage the seal, and had read about seals imitating humans after doing barrel rolls. So I attempted to do a barrel roll in the water to entertain the seal. The seal reacted by becoming shy for an instant, and meandered behind a rock to hide. We of course knew where it was hiding and snuck up upon it. Upon being found, it looked up at us slyly before surfacing for air. After this little game of hide and seek, the seal no longer felt any shyness and released an onslaught of harrassment our way.

This juvenile seal not only nipped at our fins, but muzzled our bodies. It came right up to our masks, with its eyes just inches away from ours, much like in the picture above. The seal kept exploring our masks with its claws and nuzzling our hoods with its nose. The seal was particularly interested in clawing at Mark's tank, whereupon Mark would turn around in dismay, and I would chuckle into my regulator. To keep its interest at one point, I offered it my dive slate (mmm, yummy). It quickly went straight for my pencil and nuzzled it a bit. When I reached and rubbed its belly, the seal wasn't fazed. Through my neoprene gloves, its belly felt more jiggly and soft than I had anticipated. At one point, the seal and I were getting so friendly, that we were holding hands as though we were dancing. The video below from another diver at McAbee pretty much characterizes the type of experience we had.



After 15 minutes of this, we had to head to shore, otherwise I would have liked to experiment with playing fetch with the seal, maybe with a piece of kelp. My friend, Dr. Bill from Catalina, said he once conducted an entire dive playing fetch with a seal.

Even without our seal visit, our dives were awesome, characterized by good visibility, and a couple of other unusual marine life sightings (rare orange adult wolf eel sighting, and my first Dirona albolineata nudibranch).


Dive #1 (cumulative dive #161): McAbee Beach
Max Depth: 38 feet
Time: 0:53 hour
Buddy: Mark
Temperature: ?? didn't look
Visibility: 40+ feet past the first kelp bed
Weight worn: 24 lbs (10 in BCD, 14 on weight belt)
Mark's weight: 24 lbs

Observations:

• Mark spotted an adult, orange wolf eel. According to Humann's fish ID book, this coloration is rare.
• Mark spotted a Dirona Albolineata nudibranch (see right). They are as luminescent and glowing in real life as they are in the photos.
• Conducted an official REEF fish count on my own for the first time, and it was a lot of fun.
  

Dive #2 (cumulative dive #162): McAbee Beach

Max Depth: 33 feet
Time: 0:42 hour
Buddy: Mark
Temperature: ??
Visibility: 25+ feet
Weight worn: 24 lbs (10 in BCD, 14 on weight belt)

After our dives, Mark and I had lunch at the Trailside Cafe overlooking McAbee Beach, where we gorged ourselves on clam chowder and fish and chips. I then insisted that we visit the Monterey "World Famous" Wax Museum for the first time. This Wax Museum had scenes from Monterey's past history, and even featured scenes from John Steinbeck's novels. At the Wax Museum, I learned that Monterey had changed hands from the Native Americans, to the Spaniards, to the Mexicans before becoming American land. I also learned that McAbee Beach, the site of our dives, used to be squatted upon by numerous Chinese immigrants back during Cannery Row's hey day.

Great Annual Fish Count -- A Different Perspective

The following dive report was posted by John Wolfe on the BA_diving Yahoo Group chronicling the Great Annual Fish Count dive that occurred last Saturday:

A plucky group of divers showed up at Coral Street for the morning fish survey: entymology professor Bob, Venture Crewmember (used to be called Explorer Scout) Cameron, mechanical engineers Will, Mina & Peter (coincidence, none had met before), and elementary school teacher (and long time fish surveyor) Alan. Peter did the survey as a freediver (he later let on that he was on the US national free diving team in 2004), which was of great interest, to see what anon-bubble-blower could sneak up on (answer: Opaleye). Peter, free diving, went out farther and dove deeper than any of the SCUBA divers. We were impressed (cool carbon fiber fins, too).

Ocean conditions were very pleasant: flat, with nice 20' viz. And the fish were there, showing off. Hoards of JUVENILE ROCKFISH hovering over the reef !!! (very encouraging, after several years of NO juvenile rockfish, essentially a drought since 2001). These are"black-spot-on-the-dorsal-fin" juveniles - my guess is black rockfish, with a smattering of yellowtail, but I'm eager to hear whatTom Laidig says. Peter says they're even more abundant past the outer edge of the kelp. And scores of beautiful rainbow seaperch graced the nearshore end of the sand channel, one of the prettier fish in our area. Our group list was quite respectable for first-time fish counters:

• Kelp Greenling
• Painted Greenling
• Blue Rockfish
• Black Rockfish
• Kelp Rockfish
• Opaleye
• Monkeyface Prickleback Eel
• Cabezon
• Black-Eye Goby
• Black Seaperch
• Kelp Seaperch
• Pile Seaperch
• Rainbow Seaperch
• Striped Seaperch
• Senorita

Went over to the aquarium in the afternoon to meet Gil Falcone forthe fish ID seminar, which the aquarium graciously lets us hold in their upstairs classroom. Gil and I have done this for several years now - this time we decided to try to do it in a Click & Clack Tappit Brothers style of back & forth that made it more fun for us to give. The audience of morning divers were augmented by some curious aquarium volunteers, a couple more ba_divers, and by more Venture Crew young adults from Davis who hadn't yet let learned to SCUBA dive (the Venture Crew in Davis is pretty cool, it has diving as one of their main activities - thanks to Bob's tutelage and Will's help). Folks even grokked the "Blurry Moving Video Fish Quiz" at the end (strictly self-test, I've learned not to ask folks how well theydid on it, I always forget how hard/tricky this fish ID stuff is when you're first starting out). Gil then led us through the kelp tank area of the aquarium - if you haven't seen the new smaller kelp tanks upstairs near the big kelp tank, it's definitely worth checking out. Several Southern California fish species in there too, handy to view for brushing upon your southern species (Sargo, Salema, Halfmoon, etc) before your next trip to the Channel Islands.

Dropped by Tabouli's restaurant on Lighthouse Avenue before heading home. Had to "warn" Christophe that Rachid was coming to town (they're friends, Rachid camps at Veterans' campground, dives everyday, and uses Tabouli's as his living room each evening). If you haven't met Rachid yet, know that a few years back he was one the zanier characters in our local diving scene - before moving toLouisiana to care for his ailing mother. GAFC events coming up: Steve Lonhart's marine invertebrate ID presentation on Monday and Mike Davis' basic north central californiafish ID class on Tuesday, both at 7pm, offered by the Dive Club of Silicon Valley (DCOSV) at Diver Dan's in Santa Clara; and then DCOSV's fish count & picnic at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove on Saturday, July 12.

Great Annual Fish Count (Or 'I Love Rockfish')

I joined John Wolfe and his group for their Annual Fish Count dive at Coral Street Beach. I considered this dive day to be a treat. I had heard that John Wolfe was one of the main players involved with zoning the California Marine Protected Areas (he was formerly a stakeholder on the Central Coast Regional Stake Holder Group), so I was looking forward to diving with him. Doubly a treat was the fish ID seminar that was being held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium later that afternoon, followed by an impromptu fish ID dive through the aquarium.

Meeting John Wolfe was great. He is an enthusiastic, trim, 50-something man who looks like he could be in his early 40s. He has bright blue eyes that open wide when he talks about something that he is excited about. I have not met anyone more animated about fish.

The Annual Fish Count is an event sponsored by REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation). It enlists recreational divers to identify and count fish (no more than 1.5 hours of training was necessary to start counting). The data is used by scientists and divers to support the setting aside of marine protected areas. California is the first American state to vigorously set aside marine protected areas as fish nurseries for revitalizing the fish population (here is an excellent broadcast from NPR on the unique California program).


At first, I thought the REEF fish count was a gimmick to sell Paul Humann's fish ID books. The fish identification methodology used by REEF follows Paul Humann's loosey-goosey categorization of fish in terms of body shape instead of genus or family. But as I learned that the data was being used to justify the setting aside of Marine Protected Areas, and when I experienced how FUN it was to count fish in such a simple, laymen's manner, my mind changed.

After the dives themselves, we were treated to a seminar held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and taught by Gil Falcone, the chief diving safety officer at the museum. We were then allowed to wander the Monterey Bay Aquarium for free, with an impromptu guided tour by Gil Falcone and John Wolfe.

As the group mingled in front of the kelp forest exhibit (see below), I exclaimed to noone in particular: "I love rockfish". Among less enthusiastic people, I would have been a bit embarrassed to exclaim such a statement. But given that John goes around quoting the life spans of rockfish species to other divers (counting in the hundreds of years for a couple of species), I didn't feel so bad.

The Glorious Kelp Forest Exhibit
(courtesy of Monterey Bay Aquarium)

My favorite rockfish species to date is the kelp rockfish (see first pic above), otherwise known as the "dumb bass" by divers and scientists. They seem pretty stupid, which is why I like them so much. They are unperturbed by divers (you can get within inches of them), and they like to hang out vertically in the water column (also see above pic) for some inexplicable reason. On Dive #1 of the day, when I nudged a cluster of eggs with my finger, a kelp rockfish came within a couple of feet of me to investigate what I was looking at. I love it when fish do that. They are not just these automatons in the water, but exhibit what I think of as personality.

Meeting Gil Falcone (the chief diving safety officer) was pretty cool, too. I asked what the Aquarium dive volunteer requirements were, and when we found out that I wasn't qualified (I live too far away), he suggested that I volunteer at the newly opening Steinhard Aquarium in SF. I also found out some insider aquarium information from Gil. For instance, did you know that:

1. Resident Great White Shark #1 was released because it had nose injuries and because it was too difficult to repeatedly swab the area for infection (shark didn't like this too much).
2. Resident Great White Shark #2 was released because it was hunting other sharks.
3. Resident Great White Shark #3 was released because it was jumping full body lengths out of the water!

Anyways, my dives in detail from the day follow. Allen, who has been counting fish for REEF for the past 8 years, was my dive buddy, and helped me to identify the various fish species:

A Face Only A Mother Could Love

Monkeyface Prickleback Eel (photo courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium)

Dive #1: Coral Street (Cumulative Dive #159)
Max Depth: 30? feet
Time: 1:00 hour
Buddy: Allen
Temperature: Oceanic Computer 47 deg. F (53 deg. F)
Visibility: 20+ feet
Weight worn: 24 lbs (20 on weight belt, 4 in BCD)

Observations:
Coral Street Beach was an awesome shore dive where I saw perhaps my most unique fish sighting of the year, a Monkeyface Prickleback Eel (see above). Unfortunately, a predator (a cormorant?) had gouged its eye out, so the fish did not seem at all healthy. This explains why it was all the way out in the open during daytime. Other sightings:

• black and blue rockfish
• black seaperch
• pile perch
• painted greenlings

Dive #2: Coral Street Beach (Cumulative Dive #160)
Max Depth: 39 feet
Time: 1:07 minutes
Buddies: Allen
Temperature: Oceanic Computer 47 deg. F (53 deg. F)
Visibility: 20-40 feet
Weight worn: 24 lbs (14 on weight belt with two 5ers in foremost pockets, 10 lbs in BCD).

Observations:
Awesome dive, and longest dive in Monterey to date (courtesy of my drysuit). We went way past the shallow reef to the deeper reef. Vis varied from 40+ feet at the sandbed between the two reefs, to 20 feet. We saw clouds of juvenile rock fish in the hundreds! Hopefully this bodes well for the rockfish population in years to come. Also, we saw a fat harbor seal that rubber necked us as it continued on its way.

Tomales Bay (or how we drove a long way to buy stinky cheese when we could have gone to our local grocery store)

This Memorial Day Weekend, Mark and I drove up North to Tomales Bay. I have been wanting to visit Tomales Bay for a long time, mainly to slurp down the fresh oysters that are farmed in this very area.

Tomales Bay is a narrow finger shaped estuary formed by the Point Reyes National Sea Shore on one side, and the rest of Marin County on the other (see map). Among other things, Tomales Bay is famous for oyster farming, organic agriculture and "happy California cows". Some of the best gourmet cheeses and milk come from this area. Some of you may have heard of Clover milk, for example, which coffee connoisseurs prefer to put in their lattes. This milk is cultivated in Marin County (among other places) and processed in nearby Petaluma (see map above).


I admit I didn't do as much trip planning and research as I usually do. I read one excellent Sunset Magazine article about Tomales Bay, and the rest of the time we decided to "wing it", which Mark claims I am not so good at doing. Our main objectives were:

1. Buy organic cheese, and tour local creameries
2. Absorb the beautiful Tomales Bay and Point Reyes National Sea Shore.
3. Eat oysters at the location where they are farmed. Or in Mark's case, shuck oysters for Mina to eat (see picture left).

With these objectives in mind, we started out in the town of Point Reyes Station. This small, unassuming 2 block by 4 block collection of barn houses did not look so impressive, but was more than meets the eye.


We stopped off at Toby's Feed Barn, a large wooden barn housing a yoga studio, farmer's market, grocery store, coffee house and art gallery. The many Obama t-shirts and Whale t-shirts on sale there reflected the left-wing bent of this area. You may remember the well-advertised visit by England's Prince Charles visit to this area a couple of years ago to visit the organic farms. I can't imagine how the stodgy Prince Charles must have felt among these hippies. But apparently, all the local inhabitants cut their hair in anticipation of his visit.


After Toby's Barn, we walked a couple of blocks to Cowgirl Creamery, which is owned by a couple of women, and is famous for their artisan cheeses. Considering their lofty status as one of the foremost American cheesemakers, the Cowgirl creamery was very small. I had read about their Red Hawk cheese online, and when I smelled its "full-flavored" smell, I knew I had to buy it. The Red Hawk cheese has the same consistency as Brie or Camembert, and tastes even more flavorful. We put our variety of cheeses in the back trunk, but that didn't prevent the smell from wafting to the rest of the car.


After the cheeses, we sat down at Station House Cafe (voted best dining in West Marin in the Zagat Survey) to get a bite to eat. Mark ate a good, but miniscule hamburger. I got their famous oyster stew. The number of oysters in my belly after that meal: 8.


Finally, what I had been waiting for. We did a quick tour of the Tomales Bay Oyster Co. and the Hog Island Oyster Farm. A quick look around showed some interesting ethnographic trends. Everyone was overwhelmingly Asian, with a significant Hispanic representation. For about $10, you can buy a dozen "Sweetwater" oysters, and for about $15, you can get a dozen of the slightly more famous Kumamotos. I opted for the Sweetwaters. We sat down along a rock coastline where Mark shucked the oysters, and I slurped them down before tossing the shell into the water. The oysters were the freshest and best I had ever eaten. They tasted like the Ocean, but they also tasted sweet (hence the name Sweetwater) and a bit like cucumbers and melons. The number of oysters in my belly up to that point: 20.



Finally, we drove around the area and saw some admittedly happy California cows. At one ranch, we saw plastic "cow houses". These looked like mass-manufactured tents that were designed to house one cow at a time. I had not seen more spoiled cows in my life.

When we got home, we did a bit of grocery shopping at our local Andronicos. Browsing at the dairy section, what did we find, but the Cowgirl Creamery cheeses. We could have bought our cheeses much more easily, and in a much less stinky fashion, but our trip to Tomales Bay was certainly more memorable.

Hitchiking Octopus, Monastery Beach Video, and more

Hitchhiking Octopus

(picture courtesy of Dan B.)

Today was a very good day to go diving (see pic below).

Today's Swell Forecast

Plus, some video taping took place for the "How to Safely Shore Dive Monastery Beach" dive video that Doc Wong is putting together. Dave (the owner of the boat) was taking part in the dive video, so we dropped him off just 50 feet from Monastery beach, so he could do a one-way dive to shore. As we motored off Monastery Beach, we saw Chuck Tribolet on his Boston Whaler, also waiting to take part in the dive video.

When we came back after our first dive to pick Dave up, we discovered he had not met up with the rest of the videotape crew. We learned that the video was taking place on a different part of the beach. Dave swam to shore and waited around for nothing. Despite this miscommunication, it was still a nice, mellow day to go diving.

Dive #1: Moss Cove (Cumulative Dive #157)

Max Depth: 86 feet
Time: 0:30 minutes
Buddies: Mark
Temperature: Oceanic Computer 41 deg. F (47 deg. F)
Visibility: 30 feet
Weight worn: 24 lbs (20 on weight belt)

Observations:
This site sits just outside the Point Lobos Marine Reserve border, and therefore showcases a runoff of fish life from the sanctuary. We weren't disappointed, and saw a school of black rockfish hanging out at the top of this sharp ridgeline. We also saw:

• Acanthadoris hudsoni
• Diaulula sandiegensis
• a small furry and white nudibranch
• a China Rockfish,
• some unusual white sea urchins with red tips
• orange kelp greenling?
• a sea anemone eating a moon jelly

The site was also replete with abundant strawberry anemones, featherduster worms, hydrocorals, orange sea cucumbers and sponges.

Upon surfacing, Gary dumped a beer can he found underwater into a bucket on the boat. We found out, however, that that was not all that he had salvaged. A small octopus had made it's home inside the can, and was attempting to crawl out of the bucket (see first pic above). After taking a few pictures of the octopus, we dropped it back into the ocean, where it bade us farewell with a couple of squirts of ink.

Dive #2: Local's Ledge (Cumulative Dive #158)
Max Depth: 90 feet
Time: 0:33 minutes
Buddies: Mark, Gary, Dave M., Dan B.
Temperature: Oceanic Computer 41 deg. F (47 deg. F)
Visibility: 40 feet
Weight: 20 lbs (all on belt)

Observations:
This site is known for its narrow channel topography, prompting a high flow of nutrients courtesy of the Venturi effect, according to Dave's dive briefing (ah, don't you love engineering speak). The nutrients were in evidence, for every inch of the channels we swam through was plastered with technicolor strawberry anemones, hydrocoral, orange cup coral and sponges. Running into the yellow caution zone on our nitrogen loading meters prompted us to return to the boat, although I wish we could have stayed longer.

Birthday Biking - Stage 1 in Sausalito

It was President's Day, and my birthday, and despite the fact that we were still in town, and not on a far flung vacation, I had a blast.

Mark and I got to observe Stage 1 of the 2008 Tour of California, which began in Sausalito. The peleton took 3 slow rounds around Sausalito downtown before taking off full blast for Santa Rosa, 100 miles away. To our pleasant surprise, the riders, including our old friend Paolo Bettini (see previous post) were giving low 5's to the fans as they slowly rolled by.After catching the enthralling race beginning, Mark and I biked from Sausalito across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. This was another activity that I can now cross off my life's list. As I am not much of a climber, or a bike handler, the ascent up, and the descent down were physically trying. But the end view was well worth it. Notice the "Let Levi Ride" t-shirt on me, and the Peet's jersey on Mark.

After a wonderful, sun-soaked caffe latte and hot dog at the "Warming Hut", we rode back across the bridge into Sausalito where I observed some interesting marine mammal behavior. Below, you can see sea lions and harbor seals pilfering fish from the fishermen's net. Unlike dolphins, who can't wrap their minds around jumping over the nets, these seals and sea lions repeatedly glided over the net and casually ate the silver fish that lay within. Below, a sea lion(?) is about to swim over and into the net. These mammals went in and out of the net so often, it almost seemed like they were mocking the situation.
In the below photograph, you can count 7 seals or sea lions feeding within the net, with sea gulls dive bombing their heads from above.

Human-Walrus Interactions

Here are some pics from my recent visit to 6 Flags Marine World. Here, we encountered a huge walrus that interacted with us humans in an unprecedented way.

This walrus tapped on the glass with it's tusk, and waited for us humans to return the tap. The walrus and I played Simon for what seemed like 5 minutes. The kids at the exhibit just went wild over the walrus. And the walrus seemed to derive as much glee from our ebullient reaction.

It continually surprises me how human-like marine mammals are. We should never underestimate these creature's intelligence, or their sense of play.

Here also is a cute penguin that paced the edges of its exhibit, begging for its picture to be taken.

Annual "Diving Singles" Point Lobos Club Dive

Sunbeams shining through the kelp forest

On August 11th, Chuck Tribolet had his annual Diving Singles club dive at Point Lobos State Park. Chuck Tribolet is the "Diving Singles" club leader, the Bay Area Diving Yahoo Group moderator, and is well known in the Bay Area for his erudite Northern California scuba diving weather web site: Monterey Bay Sea Conditions at a Glance.

Today's dive was a treat. The Point Lobos State Park is well known as one of the best dives in Northern California. Only 15 dive teams are allowed per day and the park is protected from fishing, or scavenging of any sort. As a result, fish are plentiful and unafraid, and the colors here are vibrant.

Everyone gawked as our Mini Cooper convertible rolled into the Point Lobos parking lot. Almost every other vehicle besides ours was a "dive mobile" -- a truck or an SUV built to contain the plethora of equipment typical of temperate water diving. Our convertible top folded away to reveal both my and my fiance's dive equipment tightly packed into our backseat like a Tetris game.

While setting up for the dives, conversation touched upon the death of local diver and photographer, Kawika Chetron. We discussed how he was diving somewhere on the North Coast, and disappeared retrieving his anchor. The most likely hypotheses are either that he got swept to sea, or gotten eaten by a Great White Shark. There are normally several scuba related deaths in Northern California every year. But in Kawika's case, there was extra attention because: Kawika was young, extremely bright (Harvard and Stanford educated), and a talented photographer. See here for Kawika's favorite photos, which combined with his explanatory captions, are great meditations on diving in Northern California.

We did the first dive with two divers unfamiliar with Point Lobos. They seemed anxious to pair up with people who had dove Point Lobos before, so we agreed we would show them around. This dive was fraught with problems,which began as soon as we were dropped off at the mouth of Whaler's Cove. First off, Dive buddy #4 (I forget his name) had problems clearing his ears, so he cut his dive short and swam to shore. Dive Buddy #3 had a continual free-flowing regulator problem, and hence had a low air supply, which cut our dive short. Dive buddy #2, my fiance, had constant mask leaking issues, caused by his mask being set overly tight. He had to surface to calm his nerves and told me he nearly wanted to quit the dive. When we finally got our dive started, I made a bee-line to shore, with little time to enjoy the 50 foot visibility. I was nervous to get back to shore safely.

Below, Mina posing with a Ling Cod

Our second dive was much more enjoyable. We paired up with Dan, a diver we met on Dave M.'s boat. All photographs in this blog entry were taken by him. Starting at the mouth of Whaler's Cove, we did a slow and leisurely crawl back to the boat ramp. We saw a cormorant underwater (my second time). I also encountered some unusual cabezon behavior: I turned over an abalone shell to investigate, and a cabezon shot out from under a ledge to look at the shell as well. I never knew cabezons were so curious, given their usual behavior of perching on a rock. Below is a photograph of a cabezon taken on the dive.

Cabezon