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| 02/01/09
Italian Ledge NW 3 269', 20mn, 106mn I needed to celebrate my green card and what can be better than getting back to diving. Ken was in as usual and Phil got a leave of absence from Frank and joined with David Serepca who was getting ready to dive in the 300' range. We all met at 9am with Mike and Matt at the dock and loaded the stuff. Conditions were looking quite good, with just some short swells. We had some very nice visibility reports from Saturday and were hoping for clear and brigth landscape down below. Phil wanted to see the sponges on the NW side of Italian Ledge and we dropped the hook a little South of our previous dives there, the fishfinder showing 237' with 280' all around. There was some pull on the float warning us of current but it didn't look too bad. I jumped first with Ken and indeed the was some mild current. Phil and Dave joined us and we started our way down The water was really clear, I could see the line a long way down. At 220-230' I passed through a very large school made of a mix of Widow r. Squarespot r., Olive r., Boccacios and some others. The bottom was the usual land of big sedimentary rocks, deep cracks, small caverns. Not many vase sponges but a big crowd of fishes. I almost landed on a lingzilla, 3-4'. Lots of Yelloweye r., a couple big but too shy to get their picture taken. The usual Coppers, Vermillons, Canaries, Olives (or Yellowtail), and the deepsters, Pygmies, Squarespots, Widows. A couple of Cowcods, one quite fat was pretty cooperative. For this first dive of the season we had a conservative plan and we started the ascent at 20mn. Back to the boat everybody was smiling. On the down side we lost anther anchor and Ken blew a tire on the drive back. |
   Cowcod and China r.    Yelloweye r., Boccacio, Vermillon r., Olive/Yellowtail r., Rosy r.    School of rockfishes, Ken with Phil in the background.    Rosy r., Vase sponges. Top of the reef. Boom from some fishing boat. |
| 08/23/08 Italian Ledge SE 4 - 25 minutes to
redemption 265', 25mn BT, 120mn DT A couple of months ago I called Sanctuary's Mike to cancel the two charters scheduled in August, as I am deep frozen in administrative indecision, with an option to go if the boat is still available and the ice pack shows some signs of melting. My guarding angel kept whispering to be sensible, the ocean will still be there, these dives are expensive, too distracted, blablabla ... I built quite a fortress of wisdom around me. Then, two weeks ago Mike traitorously send an email asking if I am still canceling the August 23rd dive. I must be schizophrenic, because before I could do anything, the reply went off "What the hell, I am diving" :-) Denzil is still baby sitting and Phil bus driving, so it was just me and Ken. Last dives weren't an example of focus and attention to detail, and I was keen on getting things right this time. I took my time preparing the camera. Ken picked me up at 8:00 and we met Mike and Matt at the dock just past 9:30, under a low and cold sky. We loaded the gear and set sail a few minutes later. The seas picked up after passing Point Pinos, with deep short interval swells, rougher than last time, with fortunately little wind. The objective was still to get good pictures of Shere Khan and Mike drove to his property. At his mark we dropped the anchor, waited for landing and attached the floats. The main float was bobbing quite a bit in the swells but no sign of current. We geared up flawlessly, well I did ;-), and jumped in the waves. We decided to extend our bottom time by 5mn, for a luxurious 25 minute bottom time. After the ritual travel/bottom gas switch check at 150', we had some swimming to get to the anchor. There was a layer of moderate current from 80' to 150' and the line went from vertical to 45-30 degrees below 180'. But we got to the bottom quickly. Beside this current, conditions were really nice, with some light at 260', we could see the land in the hazy 50' visibility. The anchor was sitting about 10' from its last dive position, bravo Mike. Shere Khan was home and greeted us amiably, thanking us for not knocking on his door as rudely as last time. He graciously granted me a photo session, patiently posing a few inches from the dome. He had other obligations and after I thanked him for his kindness he excused himself. We went on to visit the nearby Cowcod, just a cavern to the left. He was home with a Yelloweye and a Boccacio, and a cloud of Pygmies playing with other juveniles. The extravaganza of spot lights I added to the camera housing was making autofocus a piece of cake, but it tended to scare the fish away. There was a dense school of Yellowtails, Boccacios, Coppers, Vermillons, etc, above the reef but I couldn't manage to get a shot. Lots of things to see all around, we stayed in a 30' radius of the anchor. The 25mn were really nice, but eventually we had to get up. Ascent was pretty comfortable, with temperatures ranging from 50 at the bottom to a balmy 60 at the surface. We met a gang of 4 or 5 sea lion babies at 150'. One was so small I first thought it was a cormorant. With their slogan "we live to entertain", they kept us awake by tugging on our fins. When we surfaced at 120mn sharp, some sunshine was starting to get through the clouds, the waves were big but manageable, and the boat faithfully waiting, a pot of fresh coffee ready to greet us. |
    Shere Khan, aka Tiger rockfish (Sebastes nigrocinctus).    Cowcod (Sebastes levis) with small Rosy rockfish (Sebastes rosaceus) and some Pygmy rockfish (Sebastes wilsoni) - Young Yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) - Squarespot rockfish (Sebastes hopkinsi) and Widow rockfish (Sebastes entomelas)  
Adult Boccacio (Sebastes paucispinis) with Copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) and Yellowtail rockfish (Sebastes flavidus)   School of Pygmy r. and maybe Starry r. - Pygmy r. and Starry r.  
Schools of Pygmy mixed with juvenile Starry r. (yellow) - Two Pygmy r. 
Juvenile Yelloweye rockfish   
Reef scenes   Reef scenes, the two juveniles are Widow r.    Various sponges |
| 07/24/08 Italian Ledge SE 3 - No good to be
too good 262, 20mn BT, 100mn DT It's our third visit to Shere Khan (my Tiger rockfish friend for those who missed the previous episodes). Denzil having to choose between the two Ds (Diving and Daddy) and Phil driving the bus, it was just Ken and myself. The forecast wasn't looking all that good all week, but it looked worth a try. The goal was to find Shere Khan and get better pictures than last time. We drove to Monterey Saturday afternoon, collected a few tanks that had to be adjusted to diving 260' after the failed 360' dive two weeks ago, and met with Mike and Matt at the dock to load the boat. After the work the fun at Bahamas Billies where we had dinner with Mike, Sondra, Matt and a couple of Mike friends (divers needless to say). Next morning we meet at the dock at 8:00 and set sail to Italian Ledge. I ask Mike to let us know when we are on the mark from 4 weeks ago, and we drop Ken's new grapple. Te ocean was kind of rough but no current whatsoever. We get ready and start diving. Visibility was looking awesome, crystal clear blue water from 30' down to 200'. At the bottom, at 260', there was some haze cutting down the vis to about 40'. When I look at the anchor I can't help thinking holy ... ! The anchor dropped 3-6' from Shere Khan cavern, with the chain going over it, just where I was taking pictures 4 weeks ago. This is a little too close. The owner was home and, to show his feelings stayed all the time in the hole, pretty much out of reach. Nearby two cowcods were more sociable. Schools of Pygmie rockfish, some widow and squarespot. Lots of boccacios. I was using 3 of the new intova led lights as focusing lights and for once focus was fast. On the down side my suit was leaking quite a bit and water temperature on the low side. We had talked about staying 23 mn at the bottom but at 20mn I thought it better to call it, for a deco that was already promising to be not too comfy. Ascent was uneventful, beside the cold, and we got back to the surface at 100mn. People on the boat were also pretty glad to head home, looks like they had a rocking time on the surface. Back on land I get the camera out of the housing, and ... no pictures. Reason was simple but too embarrassing to write down. |
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| 06/28/08 Italian Ledge SE ridge - Operation
Mowgli 260', 20mn BT, 102mn DT. Back to the tiger hunt with Ken and Denzil. After our encounter of the feline kind, all plans of uncovering the ghostly mystery of the elusive UBOs (Unidentified Bathymetric Objects) were postponed to a future date. Our fish scholar friends suggested diplomatically that an effort to provide an accurate location and better photography of Sebastes nigrocintus would be a worthier endeavour. When I realized our fish is rather uncommon in our waters, I called Mike Jones, the daring captain of the Sanctuary (has to be to let us dive from his boat) to ask him not to delete as usual the point we marked to throw the anchor. I knew we dove in a 100' radius, probably in the NW direction, of these numbers, and I was hoping it would be good enough to find our friend's home. The slack was at 9:30 calling for an early start. I crashed with Ken in a motel in Salinas (Monterey was kind of pricey this week-end), and we met Denzil, Mike and Matt at 7:30 at the dock. We were better than last time at getting things done, although I was a bit distracted (long week), and we jumped around 9:00 in pretty flat seas with a barely noticeable current. Descent was fast, 100'/mn :-), with just the usual bubble check and gas switch check. The underwater conditions were very poor for this offshore location, with the 3' vis murk clearing a bit below 220', to a grubby 30'. Sunshine was limited. I followed the line and spotted some small rockfish I didn't recognize and started shooting. In the limited view of my surroundings, engrossed setting up the camera, I didn't realize I went pretty much inside a cavern, roomy enough not to feel claustrophobic. But with this reef's wealth in fishing lines I thought it wiser to inch my way back to more open spaces. Denzil was watching me and thinking I was jealous of his recent cave diving card. Back to the ground surface, lots of small rockfishes were laying low in the moderate bottom current. Some squarespots, some halfbanded, and maybe some stripetails. Also a large cowcod, larger than the ones I saw in the two previous dives, was hiding in a hole way out of reach of my camera. With the low visibility conditions, we stayed the whole dive in a 30-50' radius of the line, what paid off as a Tiger rockfish came out from a hole about 6' from the anchor. I spent the rest of the dive in a futile and frustrating photo attempt. Not that the fish was uncooperative, on the contrary, it came several time to admire his reflexion on my camera's dome, a whole 5" away. The problem came from the idiot (that would be me) that forgot to switch the lens to autofocus after taking out the focus gear. Milton Love asked if I could get close up shots of the fishes. With my 15mm fisheye it means getting very close to the target, what doesn't work well on manual focus. Well, some pics are maybe enough (I can't say good) for identification. Fortunately Denzil wasn't so distracted and shot some pretty good video. Ascent was very smooth, I would grade it at pretty comfortable, even with the current picking up to about a knot. Looking at the pictures (banging periodically my head against the wall) I think the two tigers are actually the same fish. Six feet from the target, that's some fine sharpshooting :-) This fish is very likely to be older than any human he met, adults can get over 100 years. Such a long guard duty on this Italian rise deserves a name. The spot would have been in old Europe, I would have found some Roman emperor worthy of giving his name to our friend. Things being what they are, I choose to christen him Shere Khan. The rather sedentary habits of Sebastes nigrocintus should give our friends submariners a decent chance to see him, he will still be around to hear about the people from up here getting back to the moon. |
Shere Khan (Tiger rockfish) MOVIE
(QUICKTIME 8MB) by Denzil Wessels    June 14 and 28 Sebastes nigrocintus, and the hole he calls home.   Probable young Widow rockfish (Sebastes entomelas) and small Bank r. () or Darkblotched r. (Sebastes crameri) or maybe an Speckled r. (Sebastes ovalis)   Vase sponge, the "mark". Denzil and Ken. |
| 06/14/08 Italian Ledge SE ridge 260', 20mn BT, 102mn DT. For the first "interesting" dive of the season we had some new spots to check out, and after a few months since the last serious dive we picked Area 44, a spot looking pretty good on the bathymetry, with a bottom at 260' and a rock going up to 200-210'. Phil couldn't get a replacement on the Cypress so it was Denzil, Ken and myself for this one. Slack was at 11:07 so we could enjoy a late start. We got to the spot around 10:30 and I started looking at the fish finder for some bump. 260, 258, 260, 258, 260, 257 (oh yeah), 259, ..., and it went on like that for 20mn :-( The flying saucer was gone, or is now in some other numbered area. Plan B was to get back to Italian Ledge just 2 nm away, and I picked a spot on the SE ridge, about 1500' from our two previous dives on the NW ridge of Italian Ledge. The fish finder party was an happy one this time with a nice slope from 310' to 230' :-) We sent Ken's arty grapple on the high spot and got ready to dive. Everybody was a bit rusted but we eventually got our ... gear together and got on our way down. Water was clear :-) and cold :-(. We started seeing the metridiums from 150', and we landed on a hill top at 240'. Some rocks a little away seemed to be going up to 220'. Visibility was a little hazy but a good 60' horizontally. Enough sun light to read instruments and see things around. Lots of fishes. Not the big school of Boccaccio of the first dive on Italian Ledge, but a big crowd of red rockfishes. I first spot a couple of very nice Yelloweye and start taking pictures. I screw up the evening before and had only one strobe charged, making it a bit suboptimal. I was keeping an eye for Cowcods and here it goes, a nice one hiding in a big crack. I think I saw 3 different cowcods, although it may be only two. One (or two) looking a lot like the one I saw on the NW ridge, and one a little smaller and more whitish. I managed only to get pics of the bigger one. They are very shy and bolt away as soon as you shine a light on them. I was cursing after the %#$ fish evaded me for the 3rd or 4th time when I see a treefish ... mmm ... big treefish ... mmm ... not a treefish. About twice as big as the biggest treefish I ever saw, more reddish, taller. I spent most of the rest of the dive trying to get pictures. Like the cowcod it wasn't too cooperative and loved getting into cracks. With a partial pressure of CO2 about 9 time greater, breath holding to be discreet isn't so easy at 260'. Looking at the pictures and Milton's book, turns out it's a Tiger rockfish (no confirmation yet from the fish gurus but I am pretty confident on that one). Back to the line, time to go up. The ascent was uneventful but for the cold that started getting uncomfortable for the last 30mn of the deco. I need new gloves.  Bathymetric
map of Italian Ledge (clic for full image). The two first dives were on
the NW corner, and today's dive on the SW high rise. The lines are
submarine dives made by NOAA a few years ago. |
    Tiger Rockfish (Sebastes nigrocintus) with starries and one yelloeye.    Cowcod (Sebastes levis)     Two young adult Yelloweye rockfishes (Sebastes ruberrimus), Cowcod hiding in the back (different one ?)    Reef scenes - Juvenile Yelloweye rockfish.  Olive rockfishes (or Yellowtail). |
| 9/15/07 Italian ledge NW 1 with Ken and
Denzil 276', 20mn I was itching to dive on this spot for about 4 years, but then we found the Art Riedel Sr in 2005 and we have been busy diving it for next couple of years. Diving the wreck was starting to get boring ;) and it was time to move on to new adventures. The name of this very large reef lying at about 4nm offshore of Pt Pinos varies depending on the source, and for a long time I was calling it Portuguese ledge. But I found a number of scientific articles naming it Italian Ledge, Portuguese ledge being a sand stone formation some distance to the East. The spot we dove, lets call it Italian ledge, is a Purisima formation, which is basically a pile of huge slabs of stone. The top of the reef seems to be around 230' (we haven't sounded everywhere and the bathymetric map is a low resolution one). All around it gets to 310'-320'. The reef is grossly circular and about 1500' wide. We dove the NW corner. A friend at NOAA was kind enough to show me some video of past submarine dives and I knew it was going to be a good spot. It turned out I was way too pessimistic :) First conditions were as good as it gets in Monterey, with no swells, little wind and clear sky. We were able to book the Sanctuary a day when the current prediction was near optimal, with a slack at 9h20am and about 0.4knot at the max ebb and max flood. We set the anchor on a spot at 240' and jumped just around 9am. The water near the surface was rather clear with some chunks. At about 180'-200' we all thought we were seeing the bottom but then we realized it was a thick carpet of rockfishes, mostly olives (or yellowtails). Once I got past the cloud of fishes I could see the bottom behind, and I found myself in a store with way too many toys. The first obvious thing just 6' in front of me was a 3' yelloweye rockfish. I spend one mad minute fumbling to get my camera to see the fish swim into a deep crevice. When I started chasing it I saw the place is filthy with fishing lines and I had to waste 20s cutting one from my scooter leach. I go again about getting pictures but I was dumbed by the sheer number of cool fishes and other critters around. Boccacios everywhere, yelloweyes, others I couldn't identify (beside the usual vermillons, rosies, starries, coppers, etc). Amazing vase sponges, all sorts of other sponges, nudibranchs. I spotted a really cool looking vase sponge some 50' away and started swimming when I saw in a crevice a 2'-3' (closer to 3) red rockfish looking pretty unusual. It wasn't too cooperative but I managed a few shots. Looking into Milton Love book I am thinking it was a Cowcod, the kind of fish a diver is unlikely to see, 240' being the top of its depth range. The 20mn went really fast and we had to say goodbye. We hit the surface 80mn later after a very smooth deco. |
  Rockfishes   Lots of fishes, rock structure   Wall and fishes   Young Yelloweye with 3 Boccacios hiding and Lingcod   Vase sponges garden and Denzil   Cowcod  Cool vase sponge |
