Posted by Chris on August 16, 2003 at 00:56:43:
On Thursday night, August 14 I made a solo night dive in Redondo Canyon (Veteran’s Park). I entered the water at about 9:10 PM and the base of the North stairs. At that time I also observed a group of three dives enter near the base of the South stairs. all pictures ©Chris Grossman, diver.net
It was more surge than when I went a week ago, thus there was quite a bit of particulates stirred up in the water. It really did not completely settle out until about 60 feet.
During that dive I encountered a strange invertebrate I can not identify. It was about 4 inches long, and in about 40 feet of water on a sand bottom near the top edge of Redondo Canyon. It has covered with iridescent spines around and the top appeared to be covered with sand that was held there by the spines. It has two small white antennae on the head end and was moving at about 1/2" per second.
So far I have been unable to identify this creature. If you happen to know what it is, I would love to know.
On the dive I also saw several varieties of turbots, sandabs, swimming crabs, snails, hermit crabs, a scorpion fish, a juvenile swell shark, sand dollars, sea feathers, cusk eels, anemones, one small octopus, and many other fish.
I did not sea the plethora of octopi I saw a week earlier.
The highlight was the new creature. I have dove here for 21 years, and have over 1800 dives. Yet I still discover new and interesting creatures and fish. This is one of the many reasons I love diving.
You can see all of my pictures from Thursday nights dive at:
Pictures from Chris Grossman’s Redondo Canyon Night Dive : Aug 14, 2003