Whytecliff Park Scooter Dive 15/11/2016

Vlad and I decided it was high time to do a scooter dive, and we picked the perfect night. It had been rainy and miserable, but the weather did an about face to a clear and calm night. The super moon was happening, and the resulting King Tides were also. We hit the high tide perfectly, and I had never seen it so far up the bay. There was a lot of debris and one huge log in the water. When we surfaced we'd have to pay attention!

The visibility wasn't great, but it was still pretty good. I would say it was around 20 feet or so, even in the shallows. On the scooter out past the Day Marker, we stopped at the boulder field and one of the octopus was at home at around 70 feet. A good start! We scootered through the plumose gardens and past the Cut. Vlad found the biggest decorated warbonnet I had ever seen inside a cloud sponge. It was easily as thick as your hand, and probably close to 2 feet long. There were surprisingly few rockfish out. Normally I would see dozens, but this time only close to 10. It could have been due to the fast currents from the tides. I certainly noticed the current, and it would not have been a fun dive without a scooter!

The cloud sponges were amazing as always, and we were buzzed several times by a playful harbor seal. He was using our lights to help him hunt fish. On the way back, we spent some time looking for the missing anemones and found an area of rock where there were quite a few black circles. Whether these were new or not was hard to tell. The circles and missing anemones were definitely still present though.

Throughout the way back to the beach the same harbor seal came out of the gloom many times to hunt fish in our lights. It was a bit disconcerting, but we got used to it. The seal seemed quite happy, and we even chased him around a few times with our scooters. It was great fun.

But in the end, it was time to surface and pack it in. We dismantled our gear in an empty parking lot, under a full moon. It truly was night diving again!