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Posted by jlyle on September 02, 2005 at 13:06:56:
Robin and Ron (aka RnR on digitaldiver.net), from New Mexico, came out to California to become "kelp divers." Of course, several of us from the area were forced to drive up the coast to join them. Yesterday, Thursday September 1, the dive boat Peace took a full load of intrepid divers to Anacapa Island, one of the islands in the Channel Islands National Monument. The sky was overcast, the seas were flat, and conditions were nearly perfect for Robin and Ron's first dives in So. Cal. 
The first dive of the day was at Landing Cove - a protected marine area. We were rewarded with great visibility (~40+ feet) and warm water (66 Suunto degrees).
Here's Robin, demonstrating her perfect buoyancy technique while taking a picture -
We did two subsequent dives, at Cathedral Cove and the West End. Highlights of the trip were sightings of a Black Sea Bass - Robin and I had our heads in a hole looking at a nudibranch, but Ron saw it - and discovery of Limacia cockerelli and Tylodinea fungina nudibranchs.
"Hi, there! Come here often?" Dialula sandiegensis with blackeye goby (Coryphopterus nicholsi) -
Leslie Harris of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum is a worm expert and has us looking at tiny creatures that we formally swam over.
Serpulid columbiana - 
Leslie says, this is probably a chaetopterid polychaete worm -
White sea cucumber (Eupentacta quinsemita) -
Limacia cockerelli, a nudibranch
Bat sea star (Asterina miniata) feeding -
This guy was HUGE, over an inch-long! Tylodinia fungina. Despite the shell, this animal is closely related to nudibranchs.
"I'm ready for my close up!" -
California seahare (Aplysia californica) -
Roughback sculpin (Chitonotus pugetensis) -
You've heard of shooting stars? This is the famous "running star" -
A little California "salad" -
"Have they gone home, yet?"
R and R on the bow of the Peace. Now that you've tasted some of what So. California has to offer...when are you coming back?
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