Diving San Diego – Los Coronados

A Day in the  Los Coronados

Horn shark,

Just 15 miles south of San Diego, this is the best half-day trip for scuba diving in San Diego.  A small conglomerate of uninhabited islands just off the coast of Rosarito, Mexico (just South of the border), the most popular dive spots are at ‘North Island’, including ‘Keyhole’ and ‘Lobster Shack’. With depths ranging 15 – 100 feet, and even an old small wreck near ‘Lobster Shack’, the Coronados are a great dive for all skill levels and a “must see” dive site.  With visibility between 50′- 150′ on average, it’s not uncommon to see lots of purple coral, octopus, Moray Eels, Horn Sharks, Harbor Seals, Sea Lions, and Garibaldi.  Making the Coronados Islands a dive you’ll always remember of San Diego dive site

Once the trip is complete, You arrive at the dive site Lobster Shack a few moments later your boat is anchored, and the dive brief is over and your ready to dive. Several dive boats will take you there, The Marissa, the Water horse Charter , and the Lois Ann.

Doing a giant stride, into the cool waters, you descend the first thing to catch your eye is anchored in 40 feet of water you can see the bottom, obscured only by the thousand of fish that may get in your way, the water is a beautiful blue, the bottom has a great deal of structure bolders covered with grass. and soft growth, from the shore the bottom is rocky with eel grass as you move away from the shore, the bottom drops abruptly and becomes a rocky haven for eels lobster octopus and other ssorted fish, invertebrates.

Dropping further the bottom turns sandy with sparse plants and old wheels. and parts of a old cabin cruiser, that stories change with the amount of people that have been out to see whats left of this wreck, one story goes that two doctors went out on a fishing trip set the autopilot, fell asleep and ran aground. before it could be retrieved it was ran picked over by fishermen and left to sink off of lobster shack in about 65 feet of water. the ocean has taken it’s toll on this little boat and has been reduced to some boards and structural supports.

To dive this spot once is a great introduction to Diving San Diego, even though its really in Mexico, you start in San Diego. diving it again you find more and more things to look at. Sea Lions lay on the shore and the young pups come out to see what your doing. playing with your fins. you may surface with a group of young sea lions surrounding you wanting to be your friend.

Moray Eels hid in the rocks accompanied by cleaner shrimp, that craw in and out of the monster eel’s mouth, cleaning parasites form within and roaming over its body cleaning its skin as well. a strange partnership but it seems to work, for both the eel and the shrimp.

Moray Eel and cleaner shrimp

looking in the rocks you may see the Key hole limpet  Megathura Crenula the scientific name attaches itself to the rocks where it lives out its days eating algae, tunicates and sponges. related to Abalone. mussels, sea hares, and  Sea Snails.

key hole limpet

Diving San Diego boats out to the Coronado Islands can be one of the best vacation dives that people do when coming to California. Diving with a guide on the Island can also improve your diving experience by being shown the hiding places of some of the local sea life, with out worrying about navigating around the dive site.

Other dive sites on the Mexican Islands are key hole. Middle ground to name just a couple,  are also just as close as a few hundred yards to maybe a mile or two across  to the next Island. what ever your dive site on the Los Coronados you will have a great dive.

So come dive with us, enjoy what San Diego Diving has to offer you and your friends. Hope to see you soon happy Blogging