Here’s a video of our dive. It shows the condition of the time-lapse camera after two months underwater and a beautiful dive off San Diego:
Here’s a time-lapse video from the previous two months. Notes and identifications have been added. If you could hold your breath for 2 months, this what you may have seen:
Post-Trip Dive Report
Purpose: Watching El Nino Underwater
19 Sept 2024
By: William Hagey
Location: Point Loma – Acoustic Site 1 (AS1)
Vessels: The Keltic Knot
Topside Support: None
Divers: William Hagey, Paul Rahilly, and Jim Melrod
Surface conditions: Short period 1 to 2 foot mixed swell. Grey sky, calm.
Visibility: 50 at the surface, blue mid ocean water, and about 30 feet at the bottom
Temperature at depth: 56° F
Current: Strong current at the surface and the bottom. I tied the TLC off closer to the anchor to help with the swim and it helped a lot..
Dive #2: Time in: 1:05 PM, Dive length 36 minutes.
Depth Max: 68 ft
Purpose: To replace the TLC camera, conduct a video transect, take photos and videos, and make observations.
Summary: We swapped out TLCs with O2 sensors and did a video transect. Videos were taken by W Hagey with new GoPro. Jim Melrod, took stills.
Equipment Notes: There had been no big swell during this deployment so the camera was where we left it.The UVC has serous corrosion with big pitting. The zinc was used up and clearly wasn’t big enough. I wonder if 7075 alloy aluminum was used.
and TLC NOAA13 with MiniDOT 142025 was recovered. The TLC was set at a 15 minute interval with and O2 readings were set for every ? minutes. The UV-C light worked for the whole deployment and there was an obvious area around and including the window that was clear of fouling. The UVC light works. Now, we need to make it not corrode.
The new programming on the UV-C light is 30 seconds every 6 hours, but I think that will be more than needed. The batteries seem to be holding up well through these deployments.
Habitat characteristics and surveys:
Methods: Jim took photos and I took videos as we did our work. I swam a 50 M transect.
Transect: We swam a 50 meter transect at 300 degrees magnetic with my new GoPro cam. There was Ptaragophera and Pelagophycus scattered in the transect.
Abalone: I saw no live abalone. I was busy and didn’t look carefully.
Dive Details: Note: I used the new GPS point, but dropping the anchor with the Keltic Knot is slower and as a result we tend to drift off target as the anchor goes down. I placed a second yellow painted paver near the camera. This is good because 4 days later a commercial diver found the TLC and picked it up. The bricks will make it easier to find the location to place it again.
Here are notes from last time: The boat was north of the anchor, which is unusual. It may have also helped that we were sure to stop on site and the anchor drops very quickly from the Kelpfish. I went ahead and sent up a float that should have given me a pretty good target for next time. We were a little confused though because when we came to the surface it seemed to be in a different place than we expected. Maybe next time we should use a spot halfway between these two points? I also placed a yellow spray painted paver half way under the reef to the side of the TLC to help us find this spot again if the camera ever gets blown away again.
Notes to future selves:
1) When looking for the camera, it is probably best to leave the replacement TLC near the anchor and look. This is for two reasons, a) I can swim faster without it, and b) my hands will be able to do other things, like taking notes or pictures while looking.
These are images from the past three deployments. The camera is aimed a little lower than I would like in the newest one. But, thanks to the camera being brought up by a commercial diver on Sept 23, we may be able to place it better.
The TLC caught an octopus exploring in the middle of the night…
This is a plot of the oxygen and temperature measurements for the deployment.
This is a sea hair taken by Jim Melrod.
This is a red spong next to a sea anemone. Photo by Jim Melrod
