Swimming with the Jellies by Dan Schwartz

I finally got my camera back from the shop. It's a Ricoh, but it's been rebranded Sea and Sea. So first it gets shipped to Sea and Sea, then it gets shipped to Ricoh. Ricoh fixes it and sends it back to Sea and Sea who finally get it back to me. All in all about 8 weeks. Yeah, it sucked. I took off a Thursday and headed to the Break to check it out.

It was calm at the Break. I went in off shore.

I didn't see the colony until it was almost too late. I didn't get stung or anything but at about 30 feet I noticed tentacles - when I looked up the area was covered with them.

 

 

After the dive I talked with someone who said they were thicker a week earlier. I thought about jumping off a kayak and trying to

put on a BC when they're that thick.

I tried photographing them in mid-water, near the surface, by the sand and against kelp. Against the sand it's a washout, no contrast with the background.

 

This one was in about 10ft of water so it's mostly natural light.

Viz was about 10 ft and a plankton bloom. I went back again on Sunday to see if any Molas were following them but they weren't. It was a fun dive and it looks like my camera is fixed.