Kelpscape

Thin Black Line

This line seems to be made up of different kinds of birds, some of them cormorants, as seen from the dive boat Peace.  I like how they have lined up at the boundary between flat and wavy water.  We're told that this marks where water from different places mixes, so perhaps there's a lot of activity, and life, under the surface right there.  This line was in the gap between Anacapa and Santa Cruz, where there's a lot of mixing of water masses. It's wonderful to imagine a curtain of diving birds, fish, and plankton. But, chances for bluewater diving in this current-filled area are slim. 

Frenchy's Cove, Anacapa

Frenchy's Cove on Anacapa looks inviting on this calm day. I've had good snorkeling to the right (West) and pretty poor snorkeling to the right (East).  The beach is narrow and mostly pebbles. It's hard to imagine that Frenchy lived for years on this beach, surviving by the generosity of passing boats. Just to the right of the cove is the Pelican Reserve, where the islands is off-limits and most of the year so is the ocean.

Wave at Sands Beach

High surf at Sands Beach today.

On the Surface at Tajiguas

Here's Tajiguas from the surface, looking across the kelp bed to the west and north.  I had a few frames left at the end of the dive. Tajiguas is said to mean "it leaks" in Chumash.  A canyon a short distance inland is the county dump.

Refugio Beach

Refugio Beach is the most entertaining and accessible cove along the Gaviota Coast -- for both scuba divers and ocean creatures. I learned to beach dive there, but after more than 200 dives at Refugio, I still see something new on every dive. Every day the ocean presents a new episode of its eternal serial drama, in which each scene quickly gives way to another, introducing new actors to meet with the old ones.

As I learned to dive, I began to recognize the players on California's ocean stage: sea slugs with electric blue margins and orange tufts, fractal-mouthed burrowing clams, anemones of all sizes and colors, all amidst forests of kelp and meadows of eelgrass. I noticed changes from year to year. A dozen angel sharks assembled beyond the rocky reef, the next year swell sharks gathered, and the next jellyfish flowed through. One year the gray whales migrated near shore, and one surprised me with its blasted exhalation when I surfaced. Lizardfish were common early on; they reappeared only years later. Cormorants zipped past me underwater. A wolf eel moved in for awhile, far south of his typical range. Refugio Beach contains an ever-changing variety of sea life.

Over 12 years, I've noticed trends within the many fluctuations: an erosion in the amount of kelp, increases in the area of completely bare reef, and a decline in sizes and numbers of fish. Lobsters-large and common on my first dives-are gone. Urchins are more plentiful, the kelp thinner. Indeed, records and photos from a half-century ago show that kelp is much thinner, and that many fish once plentiful, such as sheepshead, are now gone from Refugio; although they still thrive in the marine reserves in the Channel Islands.

We are affecting the ocean -- as we have been for generations -- and we have the power to change it more. We can't ensure the survival of individual ocean creatures, and some species may be beyond recovery; but the ocean has tremendous powers of regeneration. We can set free those powers.

This description of Refugio Beach was written for Marc Shargel's upcoming book, "Wonders of the Sea: The Southern California Coast".

Krill in the Kelp Forest

Wycoff Ledge off San Miguel Island was thick with krill.  The krill seem to form rivers as they flow across the underwater terrain.  Each stream is made up of one size of krill.

Sand Storm at Coal Oil Point

It was a windy day Sunday as a cold front moved down the coast.  The west wind wrapped around the bluffs at Coal Oil Point, driving big wind waves and spraying sand along the beach. Aside from the ocean, this looks a lot like photos of the surface of Mars.

Anacapa

Anacapa Island at sunset, seen from a small plane on the hop from LAX to SBA.  I always wish I could stop and get out, set up a tripod and try different angles.

Silver Ocean

The ocean has been nearly flat lately, apparently the result of La Nina conditions, with a stationary high over the Northern Pacific blocking the storms that usually arrive in chains this time of year.  And, it makes it particularly warm.  The kelp seems to be doing well, too.

Refugio Beach

Refugio Beach, west side, seen from a couple hundred feet offshore.