Emerald Bay
Location: Laguna Beach, California
Wreck/Site: Emerald Bay
Teams:
Team 1: Andrew Hung and Norbert Lee
Mission Impact: 1 cage style lobster trap located and marked using GPS, additional survey completed.
Our team is truly special because our divers are relentless in their pursuit of marine debris. 2 of our team members, Andrew and Norbert, completed a survey of a local diving hot spot, Emerald Bay. There are a few things that make this site unique. First, it is a shore dive which means that divers gear up at their cars and walk to the entry point with all of their gear. Then, once they get to the beach, they have to walk across the sand (with all the heavy gear!), get into the water through the waves, put their fins on just outside of the break zone (where the waves crash), and then swim to their descent point. In summary: it’s a workout! Laguna Beach is also unique in that the beaches are a series of coves. For divers, this means that you can (theoretically) dive 2 coves or more coves in one dive, assuming you have a diver propulsion vehicle (DPV).
The dive plan for the day was for Andrew and Norbert, using their DPVs, to survey multiple coves for lobster pots and any other debris and collect GPS coordinates using the GPS buoy.
Unfortunately, the conditions did not allow the team to survey multiple coves. However, they were able to locate and mark one lobster pot for future collection.