By Dave Wakeley February 2, 2013 On Groundhog Day, February 2nd, Pieter Booth, Chuck Barrett, and I met at
Redondo. As we got into the water for our first dive at a very high tide, Chuck
did not feel right about his equipment (it was his first time in his drysuit
since August!) so he headed back in while Pieter and I headed out. We went down
to check the deep boat to start with. Nothing much was going on at the boat, but
the adolescent Wolf Eel in the tire just up the slope was playing peek-a-boo
with us. While Pieter was taking pictures of the little guy, I found a Bay
Pipefish about 10 feet further up the slope. We then headed up to the shallow
boat where we found Chuck looking at the GPO under the boat. He has worked
things out and had come down to join us. When I looked for the Decorated
Warbonnet in the little hole on the nearby big pipe, I could not see him, but I
saw the eggs he had been guarding. We continued on and at the pipe boat found a
gunnel on eggs in one of the pipes. When I dove at Redondo last month, I found
two gunnels in this pipe. They have been busy! Chuck left after the first dive, so it was just Pieter and me for the second
dive. Pieter wanted to start out with another look at the little Wolf Eel. The
Wolf Eel has a roommate in the tire, a small rockfish. The Wolf Eel is
definitely the boss of the tire. As we started up the slope, we came across a
GPO out walking about. We followed it back up to its home under the shallow
boat. When I checked again on the Decorated Warbonnet, he was back home again.
We then continued on through the junkyard. There was not much to see as we swam
through the junkyard. We did find that a guitar has been tied onto the steering
wheel of the Volkswagen Bug. On the way back to the entry/exit point, we found a
second GPO tucked way back under a concrete slab. The water temperature was a chilly 46 degrees and the vis was 20-30 feet. The
sun never came out from behind the clouds, so like the groundhog, we never saw
our shadows. To see Pieter’s pictures and video of our dives, staring the GPO out walking
about, go to: https://vimeo.com/58834103 |
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