Dive #471 - Clarke Rock - 11 March 2021
J and I went out to Clarke Rock on a beautiful sunny day to look for lingcod egg masses. The visibility above water was great - we could see down to Washington. Below water was another story. We didn't use the line to go down, as I assumed that viz would open up at the bottom. It did not. Since we didn't go down the line, we couldn't find the block. We swam out into the sand, the wrong way for a little while, then turned around and finally hit some part of the rock. I'm still not sure where we were for 95% of that dive. Only at the very end did I figure out where we were. At one point we got separated, and both of us worried about having to find each other and do an open-water safety stop (we can do it, but in such crappy viz it's not nice). Luckily we found each other after a bit of searching.
Anyways, after this dive I'l be staying out of the water for awhile. It's pretty gross, the amount of reproductive fluids. My hair was washed three times when I got home.
Viz was terrible because loads of critters were broadcast spawning: chitons (I have photos of both male and females), chitons, sea stars (vermilions stretched out flat, purple and rose stars up on their tippy rays), sea cucumbers. Also spotted a cookie star, a wee little tiny PSKC and a juvi PSKC. Juvi rhico crab. One ray of a mottled star that didn't look like it was attached to a central disc, but looked healthy anyways.
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