The visibility is not getting any better and has actually decreased since my last dive on Sunday. This may in part be due to it being high tide during this dive rather than low tide as on the last one. Five of us set out to go diving but only three of us remained by the time we were ready to go down. Lucas's power inflator was leaking and wouldn't close so he was out and the o-ring on Shannon's BCD had fallen out when the power inflator hose was being attached so when she went to inflate it in the water it leaked out the air. This left Steve W., Katie and myself to explore the darkening depths of Rockaway Reef. Since the other two hadn't been there in awhile I was put in charge of leading the dive. I did better this time. We made it down to the reef and began from our usual North to South direction. Since the tide was coming in and approaching high tide the reef was about 10 feet deeper and much darker than Sunday.
We went along the reef searching for critters to observe. I've noticed though that since the algae bloom this week the number of creatures on the reef in the darker sections has decreased significantly. Normally, we would see many types of invertebrates and fish and I now primarily see Dungeness Crabs and a few fish. We did see a small Opalescent Nudibranch on the main reef hiding under a rock. The Giant Sea Cucumbers appear to be much larger than what I've seen over the past couple of months and the Orange Sea Cucumbers are more extended with their stalks showing rather than being pulled in as they normally are. Due to it being so dark and murky we decided not to go down to the deep reef, instead heading around the corner to continue along the main reef. Upon rounding the corner I found what was a fairly large crab with numerous barnacles growing on its back with the barnacles extending their legs for feeding. As we approached the upper end of the main reef and the water became more shallow to about 35 feet more creatures appeared including a Lemon Yellow Nudibranch (this one was solid yellow while many of the ones we normally see are either white with a yellow lining or white with yellow dots), a couple of Leopard Dorids, a huge Decorator Crab with spindly legs and what appeared to be a cone upon its head and a Moss Head Warbonnet hiding in a Giant Barnacle. It ducked inside and tried to hide in the back when the light was shown upon it. We also saw numerous Rock Fish and even a Cabezzon covered in algae hiding in a crevice.
The algae covering everything produced a kind of gloomy and dispirited feeling to what we saw. After the main reef we headed off to the shallow reef and this time I found it. Part luck and partly I was looking in the right direction. As we swam along the contour we came upon a small rock that I knew the reef was near. On Sunday I was looking up the contour towards shore when in fact the reef was on the downward slope of the contour. I decided to look that way and saw what I thought was a vague outline of the reef. We swam that way and this time found the reef. We spent some time there and found more crabs and various creatures but the Octopus that used to live there was gone.
As we headed back towards the line a Dogfish Shark came out of the gloom at about 20 feet of depth. This one was about 2 feet long and its yellow eyes appeared to be staring at nothing in particular, but it headed straight towards me then veered away when it was within a foot or so. It swam a ways out then came back around and again veered away at the last minute. It repeated this action one more time before swimming off into the darkness. Wow, that was incredible. I haven't seen one of those since last summer down on the main reef and never had one come so close multiple times. Nothing could compare to that part of the dive. Lucas and Shannon waited for us and Lucas wanted to know if the dive was epic. No, but it came pretty darn close. Another good dive in Puget Sound.
We went along the reef searching for critters to observe. I've noticed though that since the algae bloom this week the number of creatures on the reef in the darker sections has decreased significantly. Normally, we would see many types of invertebrates and fish and I now primarily see Dungeness Crabs and a few fish. We did see a small Opalescent Nudibranch on the main reef hiding under a rock. The Giant Sea Cucumbers appear to be much larger than what I've seen over the past couple of months and the Orange Sea Cucumbers are more extended with their stalks showing rather than being pulled in as they normally are. Due to it being so dark and murky we decided not to go down to the deep reef, instead heading around the corner to continue along the main reef. Upon rounding the corner I found what was a fairly large crab with numerous barnacles growing on its back with the barnacles extending their legs for feeding. As we approached the upper end of the main reef and the water became more shallow to about 35 feet more creatures appeared including a Lemon Yellow Nudibranch (this one was solid yellow while many of the ones we normally see are either white with a yellow lining or white with yellow dots), a couple of Leopard Dorids, a huge Decorator Crab with spindly legs and what appeared to be a cone upon its head and a Moss Head Warbonnet hiding in a Giant Barnacle. It ducked inside and tried to hide in the back when the light was shown upon it. We also saw numerous Rock Fish and even a Cabezzon covered in algae hiding in a crevice.
The algae covering everything produced a kind of gloomy and dispirited feeling to what we saw. After the main reef we headed off to the shallow reef and this time I found it. Part luck and partly I was looking in the right direction. As we swam along the contour we came upon a small rock that I knew the reef was near. On Sunday I was looking up the contour towards shore when in fact the reef was on the downward slope of the contour. I decided to look that way and saw what I thought was a vague outline of the reef. We swam that way and this time found the reef. We spent some time there and found more crabs and various creatures but the Octopus that used to live there was gone.
As we headed back towards the line a Dogfish Shark came out of the gloom at about 20 feet of depth. This one was about 2 feet long and its yellow eyes appeared to be staring at nothing in particular, but it headed straight towards me then veered away when it was within a foot or so. It swam a ways out then came back around and again veered away at the last minute. It repeated this action one more time before swimming off into the darkness. Wow, that was incredible. I haven't seen one of those since last summer down on the main reef and never had one come so close multiple times. Nothing could compare to that part of the dive. Lucas and Shannon waited for us and Lucas wanted to know if the dive was epic. No, but it came pretty darn close. Another good dive in Puget Sound.
Fabulous Write up! =-D We will be there tonight for the dive, with working gear we hope!!! =-D
ReplyDeleteLucas