Posted by Wayne on January 24, 2002 at 16:38:18:
In Reply to: Moray Eels posted by seahunt on January 24, 2002 at 13:54:36:
I used to have a thing for Abalone. I would dive at Catalina and always get my limit of abs. I would usually hunt them in the splash zone where no one else seemed to be stupid enough to dive. I would wedge myself between rocks, inverted with my knees and fins above the water. I would use my elbows to lock myself in and wait for the slack water between waves. If I did not see abs, I moved over a few feet and locked in again.
Back then I usually used my twin 60s. In this behavior, I could suck them dry in 30 minutes. Boy the regulator would scream as I would fight to hold my spot in the surf. Then I would drop down to about 10 or 15 fsw and swim back to the boat (often the Westerly) where I had to help lift my at-pac(with integrated weights of lead shot and glass marbles) and tanks into the fill tank. Gosh, what I would have given back then for the long fill whips of today's boats.
Oh yea, moray eels. Back then in the mid to late 70s there was an eel in every hole. More than once I would start to pop an ab and see the smile behind him. I knew that my arm would be considered a threat, so I left the ab. I distinctly remember one wonderful ab that I worked to get. It was about a foot down a crack. I used to carry small rocks to use a fulcrums to allow the ab iron to lift enough of the ab in a crack that is only 5 inches wide. I quickly inserted the iron, the ab sucked down hard. I then took a 1" rock from my pocket and started working it down the iron, closer and closer to the dinner. Each lift cycle would advance the fulcrum another 1/2 inch or so until finally the end of the iron woudl lift the shell high enough that the ab lost suction. I then had a few long seconds to grab the slowly falling shell and measure it. If it was short, I would stick it back where I found it and hold it until it was sucked back down (maybe 15 - 30 seconds). So anyway, I finally popped this monster and reached in and grabbed the shell. When I reached in with my free arm, I could not see much, but I was having trouble holding the shell and I felt liek I was being pulled in. I wiggled until I could see what was happeneing and I was in a fight with a HUGE green moray who had bitten the ab in the center of the foot and was pulling it hard. In a millisecond or so, I managed to let go and retract my arm. I watched the eel take my dinner back down his hole. Maybe in another 10 minutes or so, I had my breathing back to its usual level and used the rest of the air on a peaceful relaxing cruise of the bottom. I did not have my limit, but it took a while before I was going to stick my arm back into a hole.
I also remember all the cute little sharks around Palos Verdes. Back then you could not dive Malaga Cove without seeing several leopard or lemon sharks. They were beautiful. Now I never see them. And I almost never ever see any eels anywhere in southern California. I do not know when the left, but they are certainly gone.
Wayne