5/20/2012 - A Day Late And A Doliolid Short

With reports of sixty feet visibility on the Redondo barge and Dendronotus iris at Marineland, I was excited to get in a couple of great dives today. I ran into Scott Susoeff at Dive n' Surf yesterday He told us about his dive on the barge. I jokingly said we would probably have brown water there today. We did. The top fifteen feet was warm and blue, but the brown layer extended to within ten feet above the barge.We made the best of it by shooting nudis and attempting to shoot jellies in the muck.

Cuthona albocrusta

Christmas tree full of Hermissenda ornaments

Aegires albopunctatus

Cuthona divae

Thetys vagina

Craig Hoover told of Rainbow nudibranchs, Dendronotus iris in the sand near the 120 Reef at Marineland. When they have shown up before, they arrived in large numbers in an area we call Rainbow Nudi Bank. I decided to dive there, but it was a bad decision. We were skunked. Kevin Lee and I each found a Hopkin's rose while Merry got more incredible jelly photos.

Hopkin's rose

Octocoral, Alcyonium rudyi

A single star, just like the rating I get for my choice of dive sites today. :(