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| The Sea Divers Trip to the Pinnacles of San Miguel Island, September 7-8, 2007 |
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| The Sea Divers Trip to the Pinnacles of San Miguel Island, September 7-8, 2007 |
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Posted by Chris on September 19, 2007 at 22:40:27: The Peace with the Sea Divers aboard departed Ventura Harbor on Friday at 1 AM and we headed for San Miguel. I don’t really know what the ride most of the night was like because I slept. I got up at first light and we were just passing Santa Rosa Island and crossing the passage on our way to San Miguel Island. In the distance behind the boat I could see two Blue Whales. We stopped for our first dive at Skyscraper, our first pinnacle for the day. Because of the swell it was quite a bit of surge at the top, but once I got down a ways it was relatively calm. I took many pictures of Cypraea spadicea (Chestnut Cowry) at this site. Our second pinnacle was Boomerang Bank. I this dive I choose to hunt for Rock Scallops and left my camera behind. I got my day’s limit of 10 nice scallops, mostly below 110 feet. The third dive was an unnamed pinnacle West of Wilson Rock. This is the only dive of the trip I took my dome port wide-angle camera on. I got some very nice wide-angle macro shots, especially of Garveia annulata (Orange hydroid) on Calliarthron cheilosporioides (Articulated coralline algae), which is fairly common and something I had ignored in the past. However it caught my interest on this dive. Our fourth dive was at a site called Oil Springs. It is a series of pinnacles and canyons in a deeper area outside of the Point Bennett foul area. I found one spot there where almost everywhere I looked I found Artedius corallinus (Coralline Sculpin). After four deep dives Captain took us to Lovers Cove inside of Cuyler Harbor for the fifth dive. This is the only dive of the trip I sat out. For I night dive we move a short distance to behind the protection of Hare Rock. It was a bit of surge and the water was thick with fish fry and krill so the visibility was not great. When I got to the bottom I was amazed to see Pandalus danae (Dock Shrimp) almost everywhere. Later in the dive I found an juvenile Loxorhynchus grandis (Sheep Crab). I then came upon a small area of hermit crabs all inside long tubes. I had never seen these before so I spent the rest of my dive observing and photographing them until my air supply said it was time to go. They turned out to be Orthopagurus minimus (Toothshell Hermit Crab). The first dive of our second day (sixth of the trip) was at Richardson Rock. I love this spot because it is so lush. When we got down below we had well over 60 foot visibility, the best of the trip. There was one area that had thin yellow encrusting sponge covering much of the Rock. Because this a preserve I did not take a sample. When I got home and looked I can’t seem to find this species in any of the books in my library. Our seventh dive of the trip was at Wilson Rock. On this dive I choose to hunt for Rock Scallops and left the camera behind. This was not a good choice. I only found three decent scallops and I came across the smallest octopus I had ever seen. I wish I could have gotten a picture. Our eighth and last dive of the trip was at Egg Rock, a pinnacle in the San Miguel Passage between San Miguel Island and Santa Rosa Island. The most interesting thing I saw on this dive was the huge Blacksmith. They were back under a deep ledge, but were by far some of the biggest I have ever seen. Unfortunately I could not get close enough for a picture. On the way home off of Santa Cruz Island we encountered a pair of Blue whales. Captain Kevin stopped the boat for a few minutes so we could watch them. It was another great Sea Divers trip. Captain Kevin put us on fantastic dive spots the whole trip and the crew of the Peace did a great job. I hope you enjoy my pictures from the trip that follow ...... Chris
 The Sea Divers trip to The Pinnacles of San Miguel Island aboard the Peace September 7-8, 2007 click on the images to enlarge
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