Dive Report - Pt Loma Sea Nettles 7/22/12

Black Sea Nettle Jellyfish (Chrysaora achlyos)



Date: 7/22/12
Location: Pt Loma, near Gayle's Spot
Time in: 9:53 am
Time under: 44 min
Max depth: 32 ft
Min temp: 61 F
Vis: 15-20+, blue
Waves: 2-3 ft swells and a current pushing south-east
Buddies: Mike H & Steve M

Second dive was about 30 minutes, max depth of 29 ft on the same tank with similar conditions.



Photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20120722-Scuba-Pt-Loma/

Highlights: Black sea nettles!

We went out on a mission on Steve's Sub Mariner searching for black sea nettles and we were successful. They only come every few years and the last time was July 2010, almost exactly two years ago today. We knew they were likely near the end of their visit, so there was a good chance we'd miss them. We pulled into a few different potential dive spots and looked overboard into the blue water. Unfortunately, we didn't see any. We finally decided on a spot along the edge of the kelp in about 90 ft of water and took a chance.

Soon after rolling into the water and getting our cameras, we found one, then two then three black sea nettles. Mike and I stayed up in the top 20 ft in the clear blue water shooting the sea nettles while Steve went down to set the anchor and explore the crevice. About half way through the first dive, the sea nettles disappeared. We spent the rest of the dive searching for more, but had no luck.



After the surface interval, Mike and I decided to do another dive on our tanks. We both had about 1600 psi left and were planning on staying in the canopy again. As soon as I dropped in, I saw another sea nettle and Mike soon found his own. Steve stayed up on the boat and ended up pulling anchor to follow us. We followed the sea nettles into open water and spent the rest of the dive shooting them.

Another great day on the water with Mike and Steve!

Scott