Octopus Redoux

Luis and I went to the beach at Tower 19, looking for the rocks were I found the octopus on Sunday. We swam out past the swim buoys and went down. The seas were calm despite 5-10 knot winds from the North. Visibility was not bad, but could have been better.

We found several of the round-hole amphipods, but were unable to lure any of them from their holes. Most dashed way down in the dark and could not be seen at all.



As we left the sand, a small Green Sea Turtle swam past us, but was moving too fast for me to catch him. I took some pictures but they were all backscatter.

We just got on the reef when we spotted a small purplemouth moray eel. We also swam into the staghorn coral forest, where we found all manner of reef fish and a cute little reef urchin, as well.

















What we did not find were the rocks where I saw the Octopus. We swam to the Eastern edge of the reef, then went South before turning West and heading back to the beach. They were large rocks and there were several of them, but we must have swam right by them in the limited visibility.

As we got to the beach, we saw a second Green Sea Turtle. I swam after it, but could not get close. The photos I took were filled with backscatter from the strobe. I was cold and Luis had things to do, so we stopped at the single dive.