A frustrating lack of underwater photos

On Monday we made three dives to retrieve the three miniDO2T sensors. Since these were short dives, we traded off who went down. I went on the first dive and planned to document the installation of the CTD. Unfortunately the visibility was poor and the depth was at the limit of my camera. I did not succeed in getting any reasonable photos of the CTD installed on the cement "pyramid" at the Morro Prieto site. I did get a photo of a kelp recruit on the line holding the sub-surface float, so maybe there is hope that the kelp will come back now that the water is warming up.

Macrocystis recruit on subsurface mooring line

That dive lasted 10 minutes, and I was not involved in the other two dives.

On Tuesday we dove at two of the three sites to re-deploy the miniDO2T sensors. We didn't need to do it at the "pyramid" site since the CTD would be collecting that data. I didn't dive at the "buckets" at Morro Prieto and instead dove at the third site at Punta Prieta. This site has a fairly disturbed sandy bottom, but with much better visibility. It is on the more protected, landward side of the island. I decided not to take my camera which was a mistake since it was probably shallow enough for me to get some decent photos. I dove with Fio and Brock and as the third diver didn't have to go. However, I made the right decision since we had engine problems and had to abort the third dive that we planned to make. It wa going to be an exploratory dive in the nearby reserve. I had been looking forward to this dive in what looked to be a great place to take photos. So after two very long days of driving and two days where I spent 5 hours each day getting gear together, motoring to the sites, and then returning and cleaning up, I managed to make one 10 minute dive and one 9 minute dive.

Fio and Magda preparing the miniDO2T for deployment.

Fio and Magda get the taped up miniDO2T ready for deployment