After the epic visibility we enjoyed yesterday at Hermosa Artificial Reef we pushed our luck this morning. Visibility was half of what it was and the Giant Sea Bass were keeping themselves in the upper water. A sea lion buzzed me a few times. He may have been the reason the GSBs were scarce.

After forty-five minutes with only a few sightings, Merry headed back up. Little did I know, but she had a good reason for surfacing. She found a crab on Spongehenge completely tangled in thirty pound test line. I hope nobody has been targeting the GSBs. Merry's dive knife was no match for the line, so she took the crab up to the boat and began cutting away the line with scissors. It took a long time, but she succeeded and was able to release the crab back into the water.

I finally tried one of Merry's tricks. I banged a rock on one of the pilings and soon a large Giant Sea Bass made a beeline for me. I got one shot before it left, but several more came to the reef, including a Broomtail Grouper that Merry had photographed a couple of years ago. I got a butt shot as it swam away. :(

The next time we dive at Spongehenge we will bring sharper tools and remove the fishing line from the sponge.

I hear you knocking

• Looks like fun (-) seahunt 07:55:07 11/01/20 (0)