Catalina Dive Trip

Here's the product of 8 dives in 3 days, in picture form:


Macrocystis pyrifera in all its glory.


Say hello to your California State Marine Fish! (Fun fact: California is the only state with a state marine fish.) The Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus and yes I'll ease up on the scientific names) is a type of damselfish, a family of fish that is known for its extreme aggression. The males fight with each other and with other fish to establish the best territories with the best shelter and the best selection of algae, their food of choice. If the female is suitably impressed, she'll deposit her eggs there and allow the male to fertilize them. The male then stands guard over the brood until they hatch. The males ward off all would-be attackers by popping their jaws and rushing the attackers, which creates a loud popping noise underwater that you can actually feel if you get close enough.


I'm not sure exactly what kind of fish this was, but it really wasn't interested in moving. My dive buddy and I got fairly close before we even realized he was there, and he didn't even bat an eye, though granted, he doesn't even have eyelids.


We dove along what is essentially an underwater cliff. This picture was taken at a depth of about 10 feet (the earlier ones were as deep as 50 feet). As much as I like kelp, it's always good to remember that there are always more algae in the sea...


This may look a little algae-esque, but this is actually a shot of a gorgonian we found under the pier. Gorgonians are a type of cnidarian, which include jellyfish, sea anemones, and coral. The little white spots on the gorgonian here are tiny polyps, each of which is an independent organism growing in this larger colony.


We did all our dives at the USC (boo) Wrigley Marine Station, a research station on the southeast side of Catalina island. Water quality was great (as you can see), waves were nonexistent, and there were fish everywhere. These pictures happen to be a little algae-heavy because kelp tends to sit still a little better than a wary fish. For example, I also have some great blurry shots of wrasses, kelp fish, and California sheephead (both males and females), but I try to limit the motion sickness on this blog as much as possible.


Still kelp. Still awesome.

Dive Class Pictures!

Tonight was Underwater Photography Night in scuba class, so here are a few shots of us playing around. My camera got passed around quite a bit, and I ended up having about 60 random pictures on my camera at the end of the night, plus six videos. The pictures below are all ones I took - click each to see a larger version. Enjoy!



A shark's eye view...



The pool where we practice has a glass window cut into one of the walls at the deepest part of the trough, giving people in the dive locker a view into the bottom of the pool, a relic of the days when a UCLA professor (and the first divemaster) studied the effects of diving and swimming on the human body. Anyway, this picture is only of that window - Adam (one of the dive TAs) is in the dive locker, and the lane lines are a reflection of what's behind me. Even still, it reminds me of those creepy bubble windows at the Monterey Bay Aquarium... I still don't like those things...



This FOB picture is dedicated to my roommate Peony, who says I do FOB better than actual FOBs. (FOB - Fresh Off the Boat, a moderately derogatory name for a very Asian Asian)



More shark-eye view. Since I didn't use a flash, I used a slower camera speed to catch all the pool light, and believe me, it is hard to sit still while in the middle of the water column. So I'll just say I was going for artsy on this one...



As you can see, the window is not entirely for research purposes. The funniest thing about this picture is that Ashley (my dive buddy) didn't know about Adam's sign until much later when we were getting out the pool.