CHAMBER DAY 2003
A fundraising event to help the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber


"HI, I'm a Mola, what are you?"
"You're a suspicious looking critter!"
 


"Help!  There's a big ugly thing chasing me!"

Unidentified Nudi - any ideas?
Maybe the eggs will help with the ID.		  

The Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber


Hermissenda crassicornis
The USCG Helo that will can get you to the chamber at somewhere between 120-160 MPH!

Beth and I were fortunate enough to get off for Chamber Day.  The ride over was a little rough, and the weather was a little dreary for the first dive.  It was actually drizzling rain when I surfaced from my first dive at a place near Ship Rock.  The first dive had some nice little walls, ledges, and piles of rocks full of lobster and moray eels.  The second dive was incredible.  We found hundreds of nudibranches crawling all over the kelp and laying eggs on the kelp around Ship Rock.  Almost every piece of kelp below 40fsw was covered with them.  I've never seen so many nudi's of one species in one dive before!  There were also quite a few Hermissenda Crassicornis' roaming around.  As Beth and I were headed from Ship Rock back to the anchor chain, I noticed a Mola about 20 ft above me hanging out in a school of Black Smiths.  I had never seen a Mola before, so I quickly headed over to it and snapped a few pics.  The only other Mola that I've ever seen was spotted laying on the surface as we were leaving Long Beach this morning.  I was really neat to see 2 Mola's in one day - especially after nearly 150 CA dives without seeing a single one.

After the 2nd dive, we quickly grabbed some food and headed over the Chamber.  We met some fo the guys who work on the Baywatch boats and USCG Helicopters.  Next we got a tour of the Chamber and were treated to a 1FSW dive. It was interesting to see how 1 FSW of pressure affected our ears.  It was a message that we're not clearing often enough underwater.  It was a fun day and it was good to be helping a resource that saves or treats several dozen SoCal divers each year. 

 Chamber Day                        Divers Alert Network

 

 

 

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