Posted by Ken Kurtis on April 07, 2004 at 23:24:39:
Boy, did we ever have a great dive Wednesday night at Redondo (Veterans). This was the monthly Reef Seekers night dive and we had the whole place to ourselves (and there were only three of us to boot).
Surf was 1-1½ feet, vis was probably 20 feet, not too much particulate in the water, surge not too bad, water temp in the shallows around 61º and dropping to 57º in the canyon (which beat the 52º that we had a month ago.)
Although we didn't see any squid eggs, we saw TONS of other stuff. We had all kinds of crabs - mole, swimmer, globe, box, hermit, and even masking - and had a bunch of the female swimmer crabs with bright red clutches of eggs.
There were flatfish galore including a nice-sized halibut who posed for the camera, and the requisite sanddabs and juvy halibut, not to mention a Round stingray.
The cusk eels were out in force, including some that were the size of a hot dog, and this was the first time I'd ever seen them bury themsevles tail-first in the sand as a defense mechanism. I may have also spotted a Catalina conger eel.
There were also abundant scorpionfish, a small Lavender sculpin, a couple of different kinds of shrimp, and a Sarcastic fringehead sitting in a turban shell.
But the coolest thing we saw was the two-spot octopus who was not only out and about but had his web flared and looked like he was eating something, or at least trying to. As we followed him around out from underneath him popped/escaped a small sanddab, very thankful I'm sure to live another day.
Really a great dive. I'm not a big fan of Redondo during the daytime (it's convenient for instructors but not much more) but it's a whole different story at night.
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, CA