There were storms in Southern California earlier in the week; I think they at least put all the forest fires out.

The weather has calmed down a bit, so the Divevets’ Island Diver charter went back out to our “secret lobster farm.”

The boat left with the Captain, Rolando the beer concierge, and eight divers – Dan, Mean Bob, Richard The Brit, Mike C., Reverend Al, Hollywood, Donna the Hot Biker Chick and Me; two chicks on the boat is a rarity.

Logged Dive #355
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: 300 psi
Max depth: 45 feet
Waves: Sort of choppy
Visibility: 10 feet or worse
Water Temperature: About 60 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 45 minutes

I was the first one over board; the boat anchored in 40 feet of water, so I decided to do my lucrative voyage to 25 feet where I caught six lobster last time.

I saw a few shorts and grabbed one legal lobster in about 30 feet; the vis was really crappy, maybe 10 feet at best.

I missed the pin on a big bug, which pissed me off, as I really didn’t see too many lobsters to begin with.

I navigated back and surfaced with 300 psi; I looked South and then East and then North, but didn’t see the boat.

Where the hell is the boat?

I turned West, and the boat was about 20 feet away; I was first back with one bug and a grim report.

The other divers slowly made their way back – some got skunked, some came back with one or two.

Hollywood and Mike C. scored with four bugs; all caught in 50 feet of water.

We analyzed our dive; I spent too much time shallow, the storm earlier in the week has pushed them deeper.

We moved the boat to a deeper spot.

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.
***********************************

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.