I came back to the Descanso Bay rocky reefs on Nov. 1, 2020 to look around when hopefully the visibility was better.
I snorkeled out to a shallow rock (it was high tide so it wasn't visible from the surface). This has been my starting point for following my compass out to the rocky reefs in the bay. During the snorkel out, a few sealions swam past in the distance.
At the shallow rock I descended and followed my compass across the sandy bottom towards the rocky reefs farther out in the bay. The sealions joined me for the entire way. The visibility was a bit reduced from them charging around and stirring up the sediment.
I arrived at the rocky reef (about 60' deep) and followed it towards the entrance to the bay. Visibility was about 40' so I had a good view of the topography. There were several sea pens and some white sea pens (or small sea whips) in the sand. There wasn't a whole lot of marine life here. There were small lingcod, kelp greenlings and some copper and quillback rockfish. This area is in a Rockfish Conservation Area so it's illegal to kill the fish. There were a few plumose, swimming and crimson anemones.
I swam across a sandy gap to another rocky area. The depth of this channel was about 85'.
I returned across the sandy gap to the main reef.
I followed my compass back to the shallow rock near shore.
Now that I've been diving here a few times, I feel like I've had a good enough look at it for awhile. I don't think the ferry ride, the swim and the compass navigation are worth it, considering the sparse marine life.
