Dive #516 - Oak Leaf - 26 October 2021

We went looking for lumpsuckers, but with no luck. Instead, we had a marvelous encounter with a juvenile female GPO, who was out hunting. We watched her around 75ft for quite awhile. She seemed to be using our lights to help hunt. At one point she flushed out a Red Irish Lord that we had no idea was under the rock! I wonder if this is the same little GPO that was chilling outside of its den my last dive at Oakleaf? Definitely highlight of the night.

There were schools of anchovies, tubesnout, and little plainfin midshipmen. The midshipmen were really amazing; I haven't seen them in such high numbers before. They'd hang out in the water column and then dive down to the sand if they felt threatened.

We surfaced to driving rain, which we could see underwater. We could also hear the pounding of the surf from quite far out underwater.

Posted on 19 November, 2021 06:18 by leftcoaster