5th Place Cold Water

Gayle Van Leer

"A Rare Find, the Elusive Kelp Gunnel "

Gayle won a $100 gift certificate from Bluewater Photo or Bluewater Travel

The story:  You will never curse being at your no-deco limits or that your safety stop is boring when your dive is in a kelp forest that starts on the ocean floor and grows to the surface. With hundreds of logged dives from top warm water dive destinations all over the world, there is still no dive destination that has that magic to draw me in like our magnificent kelp forests. With conditions that vary wildly day to day, and month to month, each time you roll in you just never know what you might find. Any given weekend mother nature doesn’t keep us in the harbor you will find our revolving group of 3 or 4 camera toting critter hunters out roaming the kelp beds off the Point Loma peninsula in San Diego California. This rarely seen gem was a safety stop find. First and only one I have seen in 10 years of regular kelp diving. I  quickly got off 4 shots before it seemed to just vanish before my eyes. Their coloration and even the way they move in the kelp makes them so incredibly camouflaged maybe they are around but we just can’t “see” them?

Location: Off Point Loma, San Diego, USA 

Camera: Sony A6000 and Sony 30mm Macro Lens with Sea & Sea Housing and Sola Video Light

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