Vallecitos Point PM, Thurs Feb 28, 2008
Lake La Jolla returns finally. Not even a roll as we kicked out. We started North of the point. We dropped into 45fsw pelted by bait fish as we dropped. Headed due west down to 70ft. This area is more of a sloping plain rather than any real walls, until you get below 70ft and hit the new walls from last winters storms. Anyhow, squid eggs are still littering the area, more so than the area in the draw that is the south of Vallecitos Pt. Surprisingly, we found quite a few squid still hanging around mating et al. We watched a coupling for a while and my what a beautiful purple display on the one, very interesting pattern. We actually headed north for a short bit, meandering before turning south again and zig zagging east and west as we looked for the beginning of the north end of the wall.
Finally hitting it and following it all the way south to the aforementioned draw on the south side of the point. From the draw we headed back to shore.
Crabillicious sums up the dive. Every conceivable crab was out. Elbow, kelp, rock, swimming, hemphill, and a huge sheep crab even larger than that mother of all sheepcrabs I reported seeing a couple weeks ago on the N. Wall. It’s legs were about as big around as my forearm! Oh, and we found a very cute little hermit crab in a nicely cleaned up Norris snail shell.
Other creatures of note: A BLACK round ray. Yes we have tons of round rays, but the Black one is fairly rare, so that was a treat. Also, a large banded shovelnose guitarfish. One strikingly beautiful large hemphill fully outstretched in a great pose for a photo….left my camera at home.
What a poser! Baitfish school constantly just above us would scatter if our lights hit them…some hitting us as they scattered! (I hate those bumps in the night…)And of course there were octopuses. The big 2 spots were slumbering in holes and the small reds were out and about.
Many of the squid eggs are turning brown and look like they have a fuzzy something (algae?) growing on the ends. I think the squidlets may have left the sac and now its turning brown, but I’m not sure. I need a magnifying glass to better examine!
Great Dive with a Great Friends!
Map to Dive Site at SeaStarAdventures.com
Surf: 2ft
Visibility: 10-15f @ depth
Temp: 56 surface / 55 at depth
Tags: la jolla, seastar adventures, scuba san diego, shore dives, scuba diving
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