Lloyd's Water Page

This page last updated May 1, 2008 by Lloyd Johnson

I do a lot of free diving off a few California beaches and I take an underwater camera with me. Sometimes I swim with dolphins and sometimes with a seal. I usually find sand dollars and sometimes hermit crabs. On a few occasions, I've seen crabs, lobsters and jellyfish. I see quite a few sting rays and guitar fish too. I'm putting several of those photos here for your downloading pleasure. The contents of this page will change according to interest and my disk quota. New photos will not come often, since I don't often get a picture worth sharing.

Lately, I've been swimming to the reef at Black's Beach, Torrey Pines Reef 2.  It's about a half kilometer off-shore and thirty feet down.  I only have a few seconds to look around, but I've already spotted rock fish, garibaldi and star fish.  So far only a few of us have managed to get down to it.  We have also done a few scuba dives, from a boat.

 

When I dive down to the reef, I can easily find garibaldi. Young garibaldi have these blue specks.	keyhole limpet	I once took a picture of a garibaldi.  In the photo, I discovered two other animals that I didn't notice. sculpin	I always find kelp bass.	I sometimes find California sheep head.
chub	sargos	halibut	I missed the head of this scorpion fish.	senorita
sea cucumber	star fish	elephant ear tunicate	some kind of flounder perhaps a starry flounder or a rock sole It's mostly covered in sand.  It's challenging to find it in the picture.  I have it's eyes centered in this thumbnail pic.  Click on it and the full size pic shows the eyes to right and the dorsal fin in the upper left.  I didn't get the whole fish in the shot.	anemone coral
I find it hard to identify many of the fish, and sometimes hard to photograph.

 

We find the reef by noting the position of this tower as seen from above the reef.

 

There are more dolphin pictures and a few video clips on the dolphin page.

 

Theses are hermit crabs. I often find these at  San Onofre.

These were at Black's Beach.

 

These are lobster at Black's Beach

 

These are spider crabs at Black's Beach.
These are other crabs at Black's Beach.

 

I rescued this squid from a seagull at Black's Beach.

 

I took these jellyfish photos at Black's Beach.		purple jellyfish		comb jelly
		Black Sea nettle	bell medusa

 

These are white sea pens at Black's Beach.

This is a sand anemone at Black's Beach.

This is a sand anemone at Black's Beach.

I found these about 25 feet under.

 

These are sand dollars at Rincon.

 

I find sand dollars at every beach.  Sometimes they are easier to find. I found these sand dollars laid out in veins at Black's Beach.  I always find them about 200 meters from shore and about 5 meters down.

 

I sometimes find starfish at Black's Beach. I find the spiney sand stars at depths of about 20 feet. I only find the spined stars on the reef, 30-40 feet under. The brittle star washed up with sea weed.

spiney sand star

spined star

brittle star

 

I find sting rays, bat rays and guitar fish at Black's Beach every day.
guitar fish	bat rays	sting rays	The sting rays have sharp barbs along their back and a spear hidden inside the tail.

 

I spotted this leopard shark.  It wouldn't pose though.. Leopard sharks are small, about a 4 foot maximum. Because of their small size, they are mostly harmless.

 

Sometimes I find empty egg cases.  I'm not sure what hatches, maybe sharks, guitar fish or sting rays.  The lower end resembles an open mouth.  At the upper end is a sea snail, perhaps placed there by the mother, as food for the embryo.

 

I found these fish at Black's Beach. I think they are corbina.

 

Sometimes there are a lot of anchovies in the water.

 

I recognize cormorants by the way they fly.  I see them swimming with only their neck and head out of the water.  Once in a while I actually see one swimming under water.

They are very fast and difficult to photograph.  These two pictures were taken at La Jolla Cove.

 

These are elephant seals, near Santa Barbara.

 

These are a few pictures I took near Kona, Hawaii.	Longnose Butterfly Fish	Ornate Butterfly Fish	Moorish Idol
Raccoon Butterfly Fish	Sea Turtle	Surgeonfish Notice the orange knives near the tail.

I would love to find somebody who would be interested in swimming with me. It's always better to swim with a buddy. Unfortunately they are hard to find. I've only met a few people who will swim that far out. It would be nice to find somebody who can hold their breath long enough to reach the bottom, and withstand the pressure. Please email me if you have a passion for free diving.