California Diving News - Heard Thru the Kelp Vine

I went back into the water this weekend and all is OK. Last Sunday was a different story. Last weekend was the Bluewater meet, so Lyle Miller and I went to San Clemente to have the island to ourselves. Then Sunday we hit the backside of Catalina. Around 9 a.m. we found some clean water on the outside of Salta Verde kelp bed. I anchored in about 70 feet of water and jumped in. I quickly found the outside of the baitfish and started watching for activity. Soon the bait bolted into the kelp, and I dropped down. The water was clear for about 25 feet; it then got hazy. Just above the haze I saw 5 or 6 small yellowtail, so I started to take aim. I then noticed, what seemed to be a gray bat ray, just below them. In the next instant I noticed two large eyes just above the ray, with their black pupils focusing right on me. The ray, I now noticed, was a mouth with row after row of crooked teeth, and this face was coming up at me with the speed of a freight train. I took my Island gun, which was already poised to fire, and shot down at the nose. I dropped the gun and franticly kicked to the surface, all the while glancing over my shoulder. I can now see the body of the shark, which just an instant before, had perfectly blended into the haze below, was now silhouetted against the clear blue, banking to the side, with at least 2 feet of spear shaft, down its nose. As I broke the surface, I began screaming to my dive partner, who was sound asleep on my boat, “SHARK, SHARK, WHITE SHARK!” I was now swimming back to the boat in shear fear and panic. Fortunately I was no more than 100 feet from the boat. As I got to the swim step, Lyle pulled me aboard, where I sat in the cockpit, unable to move. Its difficult to estimate the length of the animal, it was turning when I finally saw the entire shark, and their was no one standing next to it, but the girth was between 3 and 4 foot, and it was about 8 to 10 foot in length. So if you see a Riffe Island gun on the backside of Catalina, retrieve it with caution, there may be a white shark attached to the other side of that shooting line.

Misc. Dive Reports

The water is warming up early this year with reports of 70° at Catalina Island as early as the beginning of June. That means warm waters should be with us from now through September. Excellent visibility reports have also been coming in with as much as 50 feet off the beach and 100 at the islands. But with the rapid water warming, this is also mixed with reports of red tide blooms that can bring water clarity to near zero. This should clear up by early August. Late summer, fall and early winter are traditionally the best times of year for clear water in California.

Millions upon millions of small sand dollars have invaded some coves on the frontside of Santa Cruz Island.

More and more lingcod, although small, are showing their faces again at the northern Channel Islands. This is a good sign for a heavily pressured species.

Did anybody notice the increased number of juvenile treefish at Catalina Island? Treefish are a distinctively colored rockfish with yellow and black striped with red lips. The juveniles, however, are a striking bright yellow with no red lips.

The post-El Niño return of the kelp has been very strong in some areas but weak or non-existent in others. There seems to be no explanation for this phenomenon.