La Jolla Kayak Kelp Dive 5-21-06

[dgax65]

I had to fly to Jacksonville, FL today and it gave me an opportunity to look at the kelp beds from the air. After takeoff we did a 270 that gave me a pretty good look at the kelp off of La Jolla and Pt. Loma. The Pt. Loma kelp looks pretty much unchanged from last year. It may not come quite as far North as in the past, but it still looks like very good coverage from the South end of the Point up to Sunset Cliffs. The kelp was either right up on the surface or the water was very clear; probably the latter. La Jolla is another story. The water looked very clean but I couldn't see any kelp whatsoever. I was surprised, because you can usually see some from the air. The one place that I did see quite a bit was a couple of miles off-shore. There was a very clearly defined current break that was running parallel to the shore. Inside was clear and blue. Outside was dirty and somewhat green with tons of kelp floating on the surface right at the edge. It looked like it had just been torn up and was moving with the current. For the rest of the flight I kept thinking that it would probably be very productive to paddle along that break trolling a couple of macks.