I’ll get the bad news out of the way first: The diving was disappointing on the 4th of July at Catalina. Although we had moments of brilliance, visibility was generally poor. Of course when conditions are not great is when we look for little stuff: nudibranchs, gobies and the like. Octopus, sea lions, giant sea bass were all fleetingly spotted during the day.

The GOOD news starts with the kelp beds. They are back with a vengeance, dense, robust and full of life. And the boat was filled with a fun group of accomplished divers. We had reunions with long-ago dive buddies and made new friends in the spirit of camaraderie.

The Barnacle Busters had half the boat (15 LGBT divers) and the crew proudly flew the Rainbow Flag below the Stars and Stripes as we re-entered Long Beach Harbor just after sunset.

Tri-Tip and salmon were on the menu as we gently rocked at anchor. Fireworks over the Queen Mary were spectacular as always, reflected in the water for double-our-fun!

Hugs and kisses were exchanged as we returned to the dock around 10PM and we headed home, heads filled with beautiful memories of a most excellent Independence Day!

Another round of Legendary Bingo and club fundraising is completed! Thanks to all who came out to support the long term health of the club! Your participation helps make this event a truly, fun (and successful) night for everyone.

The house was mostly packed, the prizes were primed and the cocktails were flowing by the time our MC Joel and Ball-caller Calpernia hit the stage. The fast paced humor and wit on the stage got the audience really going. The ten games really flew by and a couple of members did get winning plays. (unfortunately, Mic Mandula was in a tie and wound up having to pull for the Bag-Of -Crap” prizes after drawing the losing tie-breaker ball). No one in the club got to take home the grand prize, 4K Apple tv, but it found a good home with a very happy young man who was playing for the first time!

If you missed the rollicking, good-time, fund-raising event this year, you can look forward to it’s return in 2019. And we are always looking for any donated goods/gift cards/free services from our members to help fill out our prize baskets. Just email us if you think you’ve got something to donate! We’ll take care of the rest.

Well, it was another successful day poolside for the club. We managed to meet and encourage more than a handful of brave newcomers to don some gear and test out underwater breathing. And while it’s not official yet, it looks good that we’ll be adding a few new faces to our buddy roster!

There were some folks who brought new (and disused) equipment out for testing and there were even a few full face mask breathers in use! It’s always nice to hear members discussing the pros and cons of various set-ups. You never know when you’ll have the chance to upgrade yourself, so it’s nice to hear reviews from people you can trust!

The day was warm, but everyone managed to escape the worst of the heat by dipping in Buck and Chris’ pool. The beef and turkey burgers were flying off the grill and the discovery of ice cream bars for dessert was welcomely received. If you missed this day of free scuba demo, never fear, it will return in July of 2019. Look for it next year’s calendar, right here on this very website!

Researchers have uncovered a nursery site for juvenile giant manta rays off the coast of Texas in the protected Flower Garden Banks Marine Sanctuary. Notoriously shy, the juveniles’ early years remain somewhat of a mystery to scientists.

A chance siting by a marine biologist lead to intensive study of surveys of other juvenile siting records in the area. This allowed scientists to conclude that this 56 mile protected area of the Gulf is the perfect kindergarten for these young, graceful fish. Hopefully, discovering this hot spot of juvenile activity will lead scientists to uncover more facts about how these giant, gracefully creatures navigate life in our great blue seas. Check out the full article here at Gizmodo.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning when seven of us joined a full boatload aboard the Cee Ray, for a day of diving. For most of us, it was the first in 2018. A lot of us were trying out new gear: Michael had a new wetsuit, Adam had a new BCD and one of us even had a new knee!

All of the new gear (and the knee!) checked out and we enjoyed decent visibility and fair conditions. However, Buck and I called it quits after two dives … because it was COLD! I don’t think I’ve ever dived in 58-degree water off Catalina before! The bright side of the chilliness was that the kelp was back, in abundance! The sun was out, so it made for some spectacular and colorful views.

The other amazing spectacle was the variety of Thetys Vagina salp (yes, that is the name!) floating around. These were some of the most curious looking creatures and I’d never seen anything like them before. They were everywhere! And check out the pic of Rex with a rope-like giant  siphonophore, an unusual sighting since these are generally deep water creatures.

Gia photographed a Giant Sea Bass,  Jeff & Michael saw a small ray, and of course, we all enjoyed the old standards: garibaldi, kelp bass and schools of blacksmith.

After a taco-bar lunch we celebrated Gia’s birthday with old-fashioned cake-and-ice-cream followed by a carb-induced nap all the way home

It was an excellent start to 2018 diving with summer-like sunshine and a very compatible group of divers. Thanks to the crew of the Cee Ray for treating us so well.Next up: Casino Point on May 19th. Join us!! 8:15AM Express out of Long Beach, 3:50PM return.

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There is a new study supporting the scientific world’s concern on the effect that rising levels of CO2 will have on our planet’s environment. There has been quite a bit of research conducted on fish populations, but very little on any higher invertebrates. This time, researchers chose to study what increased levels of carbon dioxide has on two types of squid. After pumping up the CO2 levels in tanks and observing pygmy and big fin reef squid, they noticed some differences in their feeding and hunting activities. The results, while preliminary, are potentially troubling to say the least.

While our current leaders tend to react with mistrust, or absolute denial, of the scientific data that is presented to them, the continued research and collation of information must continue to ensure the long-term health of our one and only planet. After all, on the day the political tides change, we need to be ready with fact based plans to address the continued depletion of our world’s natural resources. You can check out the article in full here at earther,com.

You probably already know that we recently posted the upcoming certification class schedule (see blog post 2018 Event Schedule). As per usual, Buck is planning to be ready to conduct a monthly class for interested, potential open water divers (and thus swelling the ranks of our membership further!). But what you may NOT know is that Buck is also more than willing to organize and teach certification classes for Advanced Open Water Diver and Rescue Diver accreditation.

Advanced Open Water Certification is a great way to hone your diving skills with a focus on things that will increase your confidence and ability to dive stress free; like bouynacy control, underwater navigation, and fish identification. And Rescue certification builds even further on the Advanced Underwater certification by bringing in diver awareness on their surroundings to identify and proactively fix problems before they arise. It helps assure that you, and those around you, will ably conduct an enjoyable, incident-free day of diving.

If these sound like good options for you, let Buck know! He only schedules these courses based on student demand. You can email him here or talk to him when you see him at the next club event. As someone who has completed both, I can attest to the great personal strides I observed in my dive habits by learning the skills taught in these classes.  You won’t regret having taken the time to learn just a little bit more about the sport.