The search continues in the Coronados Islands, Mexico.

This is a rough cut. It is fun to note that there are times when the camera is steady but the fish are being thrown around. The current on "the other side of the wall" was significant, but our SCUBA Scout, NOAA Jim, placed us in a perfect little protected bowl where we could film.

Getting to and from the hydrocoral site involved the use of a live drop and a current line, and is only for advanced divers. With a camera rig the size and complexity of mine, handling reels, watching gauges, and my buddy, I had as much as I wanted to be concerned with.

Purple Hydrocoral – Stylaster californicus – California hydrocoral is very slow growing organism. They can be found as pink or purple coral and range from Baja to Northern California. They eat plankton that floats by in the water. When most corals die, they usually loose their pigment and turn to a bleach white. Yet, California hydrocoral keeps the color pigment even after the organism is dead. This makes them popular to have in home aquariums. Now, it is illegal in California to harvest the coral for shell collecting.

Other Fun Facts:
• It can take up to 25 years for the coral to grow an inch tall
• Small species of barnacles are found living in the coral from Monterey Bay to Channel Islands

Source: dfg.ca.gov/mrd/channel_islands/sse_monitoring/spinfo.html