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THE VERDICT -- Robert Gardner

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Robert Gardner

I took up skin-diving at just the right time. A few years earlier and

facemasks had not been invented. A few years later, and the kelp was

gone.

It seems like just a few years ago a vast kelp patch stretched from

Corona del Mar to the end of the Cape.

To someone who has never experienced it, it is difficult to explain

the feeling one had when diving in kelp in the early days of diving. You

felt all alone in the world, as if you were the first man to have ever

been in that spot. You felt as if you were some kind of an explorer.

Then, of course, there were all those fish. Many had never seen a man

before and were completely unafraid. Some fish were so unafraid that they

would actually come up and look at you through your facemask so that you

felt that you would be cross-eyed if the rascal didn’t go away.

There was a measure of risk involved. The kelp was so thick that, at

low tide, it concentrated into a mass 4 to 6 feet in depth at the

surface, almost impenetrable. When you dove at low tide, before you went

in, you first found an open spot where you were going to surface.

Miss that open spot, and you probably wouldn’t be able to force your

way to the surface through the kelp. You could drown with your face only

a foot or two under water. However, there were just a few of us diving at

the time, and most of us were excellent swimmers and surfers. We had few

real misadventures. This can’t be said of the early scuba divers, many of

whom didn’t know what they were doing and were inferior swimmers.

Then things began to change. Kelp harvesters showed up on the scene.

We were told they were good for the kelp, as they thinned it out. I have

serious doubts, but “progress” had its way and the kelp harvesters

chopped away.

One summer, we had a radical change in water temperature, and the kelp

piled up on the beach. I remember well how we complained about the kelp

flies, which arrived in droves, but we didn’t realize the true effect of

the change. Also around this time, we began hearing talk about water

pollution.

I don’t know if any of these things is entirely responsible. All I

know is the kelp is no more. I’m just glad I was here when it was.

*ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.

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