Thanks to Crazy Ivan for pointing this out to me – sort of an old post, but it’s worth posting here if you haven’t heard about this.
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Originally posted by Martin Brody on August 3, 2009 – The entire original article may be found here.

There’s been a lot of Great White Shark activity in Southern California lately… sightings and video footage in Malibu, fly-fishing in San Diego, sightings in Northern Santa Barbara County, and more. To what can we attribute this sharp uptick in Great White Shark activity here in So Cal? How about El Niño?!

NOAA’s analysis of El Niño indicates that we can expect this cyclical phenomenon to appear this winter – “Synopsis: El Niño conditions will continue to develop and are expected to last through the Northern Hemisphere Winter 2009-2010.

During June 2009, conditions across the equatorial Pacific Ocean transitioned from ENSO-neutral to El Niño conditions. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies continued to increase… Subsurface oceanic heat content anomalies (average temperatures in the upper 300m of the ocean, Fig. 3) also increased as the thermocline continued to deepen. Consistent with the oceanic evolution, the low-level equatorial trade winds were weaker-than-average across much of the Pacific basin, and convection became increasingly suppressed over Indonesia. This coupling of the ocean and atmosphere indicates the development of El Niño conditions.”

Across the Atlantic, the world is watching and waiting… The Independent reports: “A new El Niño has begun. The sporadic Pacific Ocean warming, which can disrupt weather patterns across the world, is intensifying, say meteorologists. So, over the next few months, there may be increased drought in Africa, India and Australia, heavier rainfall in South America and increased extremes in Britain, of warm and cold. It may make 2010 one of the hottest years on record.”

Scientists present a number of theories for the increase in shark-human interactions: “Dr. George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert who maintains the International Shark Attack file, states ‘As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.’

The entire original article may be found here.

Having paid $65 for this lobster trip, I now had a lot of anxiety that I was going to come home with one really expensive bug.

We chose this next site because there were no boats spotted here on Opening Night; this place was going to either really suck or maybe be pretty lucrative.

Logged Dive #354
Palos Verdes, CA

Secret Location: 32 35 30 20 79 61 72 64 73 20 53 6f 75 74 68 20 6f 66 20 6f 75 72 20 6c 61 73 74 20 6c 6f 63 61 74 69 6f 6e 2c 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 6e 6f 20 62 6f 61 74 73 20 77 65 72 65 20 73 65 65 6e 20 6f 6e 20 6f 70 65 6e 69 6e 67 20 6e 69 67 68 74 2e

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 40 feet
Waves: Calm
Visibility: 15 to 20 feet
Water Temperature: About 60 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 45 minutes

I submerged near the anchor line and spotted a legal looking bug – I reached and pinned it!

It was like grabbing a had full of mashed potatoes!

The poor thing must have just molted – the carapace just dissolved in my hand and lobster guts gushed out between my fingers.

There was no way to measure it even though it was probably legal sized; and it was certainly dead – I left it there as fish food.

Not seeing any in 40 feet, I headed towards shore and turned back around when I reached 15 feet.

At 25 feet I spotted a huge lobster cave – There were two or three good sized bugs just hanging out, waiting for me to liberate them.

I dug one out and caught another one as it was fleeing; I now had three in my bag.

Thirty minutes into my dive, I saw another one and pinned it, and then I saw a bigger one two feet ahead; I dropped the light and tried to grab the second one with my other had, but missed.

The light went out and my reserve was not on – I dive with one light on at a time, so I can control where I point it.

I held the lobster in darkness as I was trying to turn the damn thing back on; I eventually was able to.

I was running low on air, but caught two more heading back.

This was a lucrative spot – I limited for the night!

The lobsters were so plentiful, some just jumped right out of the water and on to the deck; the Captain wrote down the GPS coordinates for our exclusive future reference.

The other divers did really well also – seven divers, six of them hunters, pulled in 33 bugs on this trip.

Donna the Biker poses with one of her bugs.

We debriefed with the King of Beers and some swirl that some other diver brought.

Don’t think you can dive if you ride a motorcycle?

Donna proves the rumor merely a myth.