Dive Club of Silicon Valley

Recap of DOCSV Meeting on April 2, 2014

Local Diving:
Terry went to Pidgeon Point: vis of only 2-4 feet and a sandy bottom with a max depth of 14′; not a good dive; Mike reminded the group that when doing a shore dive, look for giant kelp – it typically needs water at least 20′ deep and rocks to anchor on…

Another group did breakwater and found the barge – saw lots of sea life and had a fascinating dive; look for juvenile wolf eels if you go there

Non-local diving:

10 club members went on a Whale Watching trip to the Silver Bank, 70 miles north of the Dominican Repubic; also did 2 days of diving afterwards, caverns and Paradise Island  — showed fantastic pictures and videos of the trip

April 19th, next club dive:

Will do a clean-up dive at Breakwater – more details on the DCOSV website and Tim  sent email with details

Emergency Plans are a great idea:
Mike reminded folks about the suggestion of having an emergency plan, especially when you are doing buddy diving and aren’t diving in a big group

Fishy Encounter:

• Rubberlip Seaperch – part of surfperch family
•  Found from Monterey Bay to Central Baja @ 2m – 70 m (6-150 ft)
• Inhabits kelp forests, rocky outcroppings and jetties, and piers. Rarely are in surf zones
• Schools with other surf perches
• Wary of divers; approach slowly and from below to get near
• Distinguishing marks: big lips, vertical dark mark coming down from the dorsal fin; also has a scissor-cut tail, like other perches
• Pile perches are very similar but w/o the enlarged lips…
• We’ll learn more about pile perches at the next meeting.

Next meetings:

• April 16^th: Shore diving – What can’t you do without??? Think about it and bring a list of the absolute must-haves you bring to your shore dives…
• May 7th meeting – we have someone from Seacology coming to speak on protecting the Islands of the World – should be an interesting presentation  so please try to come

Met at Round Table Pizza in SVL at 7:30 

•     Recent Local Diving:
  •   Several members dove at Monastery 3 weeks ago –  really great dives (no  comment about how easy the exit was or wasn’t…)
  •    Bob, Tim, Don and Jan did Lovers #1 – went out to a pinnacle with lots of interesting life and saw a Cabazon *almost* the size of a VW (really!!!)
•  Upcoming Altitude Class:
  •  Altitude class coming up offered by Jim Van Gogh
  • Camp sites at Sugar Pine Point State Park, the weekend after Memorial Day
  • Will dive at D.L.Bliss State Park, a beautiful site  –   details are on the DCOSV site
  • Contact Jim if interested
•  Critter of the Week:
  • This is a new event at each dive club meeting
  • This week: Pycnopodia Helianthoides (aka Sunstar)
  • Range : Aleutian Islands to Baja, CA
  • Habitat: Rocky and soft bottoms
  • Juveniles: start off with 5 arms and grow to have as many as 24!!!!
  • Color: varies from purple to brown to orange
• Agenda for next meeting on March 19th:
  • How good is your emergency plan?
  • Critter of the week:  Kellet’s Whelk
    • If you have pictures of a Kellet’s Whelk from a local dive site, please send your pictures to Mike (mike@kamtime.com)  so we can share real-world examples of what they look like in our area
    • He needs them by March 18^th; mike@kamtime.com