Salps and jellyfish at the Yukon


jellyfish yukon Photos of pelagic invertebrates at the Yukon

Last weekend I did two dives on the Yukon with Pete, Paul, and Matt. I wasn’t expecting much, as the water can be green and brown this time of year. We were amazed by the water quality on the first dive. Though snowy, the water was very blue – it was like diving miles off shore.

The other thing that was very different was the amount of open water (pelagic) critters that were near the Yukon. You usually have to be miles off shore to see the types of invertebrates we saw on the wreck – salps and salp chains, fried egg jellyfish, and comb jellies. It was very interesting to see them all drift by, watching their mostly clear bodies feeding on phytoplankton.

It is amazing how much the ocean can change in an hour. The second dive was still good, but the water had turned from a deep ocean blue to a green hue. There were still a number of salps hanging around in the water column, but they were getting picked apart by blacksmith schools.

Photos of Avalon’s Underwater Dive Park


avalon dive park avalon dive park avalon dive park avalon dive park
Photos of Avalon’s Underwater Dive Park

Adam, Paul, Pete and I took the Dana Point ferry over to Avalon for a day of diving. It started overcast and turned into a lovely sunny day. I need to take more Fridays off. Adam joined the club and picked up a Stanley 24gal tub for transporting gear aka dive box on wheels. Pete and Paul tried out their new DSS backplates. We are starting to look like a scuba gang from the 50’s – same box, same dry suit, same backplates. Hmmm. We need some sort of snap dance to intimidate other gangs.

Killing babies

I just finished listening to a short from Radiolab called Killing Babies, Saving the World. The subject follows a lot of discussions I’ve had with friends over the years about the differences in logic choices depending on how abstract a benefit is, or how overloaded one’s thought processes are. It does a great job of illustrating how our minds have changed over time, and how much further we still need to go to confront some of the long term (and somewhat disconnected) issues that challenge our species. Highly recommended.

The beast is starved, now what?

We had a conversation with a neighbor today about the republican party punishing members that reminded me of this article by Krugman: The Bankruptcy Boys

Voters may say that they oppose big government, but the programs that actually dominate federal spending — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — are very popular. So how can the public be persuaded to accept large spending cuts? …The conservative answer, which evolved in the late 1970s, would be dubbed “starving the beast” during the Reagan years… Rather than proposing unpopular spending cuts, Republicans would push through popular tax cuts, with the deliberate intention of worsening the government’s fiscal position. Spending cuts could then be sold as a necessity rather than a choice, the only way to eliminate an unsustainable budget deficit.”

I suspect California will hit the starvation wall quicker than the rest of the country – CA has been brought to the brink several times – but it doesn’t seem like Republicans have an answer for what they actually want next.