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Photo Courtesy of Lesley Alstrand
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Waking up early is never too easy on your day off. And in San Diego, if you want to do a shore dive, you need to set your alarm and get up and out the door, usually while it’s still dark, to get a good parking spot. This Friday was one of those occasions. We arrived at La Jolla Cove just after sunrise, checked the conditions, geared up and started our kick out. On a usual morning kick out at the cove there’s a bevy of action around you that keeps you entertained, including sea lions barking and jumping from the rocks to check you out, squadrons of pelicans skimming the surface of the ocean on their way up and down the coast, to hundreds of cormorants leaving their nests to go out and hunt.
Once Lesley and I tired of kicking, we took a heading on the buoy, descended and started our dive. We knew we were near the buoy as we started to enter the edge of the kelp forest that grows at the Cove. Diving through the kelp today was beautiful with 10 to 15 feet of visibility allowing a lot of sunlight to shine down through the kelp. As we dove in, out, around and through the gently swaying strands of kelp, it reminded me how lucky I was to to be able to enjoy this right where I live, even if I do have to get up early in the morning. When we reached the buoy chain, we stopped and looked up to enjoy the picturesque view of the sunlight flickering through the kelp. It was then I noticed something big cutting through the kelp toward the buoy chain. It was a giant black sea bass. The black sea bass made a pass right above us, while we remained on the bottom, sitting still and hoping it would turn and come in for a closer look at us. As we waited we noticed another smaller black sea bass swim by us, heading the same way as the first one. After a couple of minutes of sitting and waiting we turned to leave and were startled to see this huge face peeking through a kelp strand right next to us. The larger black sea bass was just sitting there checking us out. Knowing we had spotted him, he then moved along, staying just out of reach before disappearing into the kelp.
Lesley and I continued on, in and out of the edge of the kelp, seeing the loads of life you normally see while diving the Cove. We reached our turnaround time and started the equally long dive back toward the shore. We were diving along, looking in the crevices at lobster, urchin and some abalone, when all of a sudden I felt a strong tug on my fin. I turned expecting Lesley to be behind me, wanting to show me something, but instead found a chunky harbor seal with it’s huge cute eyes staring back at me.
While at Catalina Island in the early 80's I was on a test dive for Scubapro near the East end in a small cove testing new second stages on a set of twin 72 tanks. As I was changing to the various second stages, I had 5, I too felt a tug on my fins. I turned to see a California Sea Lion offering me a piece of wood. I surfaced and tossed the wood over the kelp beds. He turned and chased it down, retrieved it, sand brought it back to me. I took it turned the other way, threw it again, and once again he chased it down and brought it back. I had my own dog in the ocean:-)
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