Mushroom Season Ends, Dive Season Begins

Edible Bear's Head Fungus

This winter was exquisite for rainfall and the fungi that such wet weather brings! Chanterelles, porcini, various other boletes, oyster mushrooms, candy caps and so much more! In many respects the winter months are my favorite for foraging along the CA coast. It is not only a great season for fungi but also shellfish and even the beginning of abundant emerald wild greens! While I eagerly await the wet weather of Fall-Winter each year, that same rainfall and the wind storms that accompany it can significantly limit our ability to go freediving.

That life giving liquid sunshine known as "precipitation" is such a blessing to the forest, grasslands and coastal plains but increased rainfall also causes erosion. Seasonal downpours are channeled into perennial and annual drainages as water follows the path of least resistance towards creeks and rivers. But all streams must eventually come to an end. On the western slopes of the Coast Range this freshwater funnels into the Pacific Ocean. The nutrients delivered by such freshwater input is essential to low trophic feeders and is therefore a positive and necessary seasonal gift. However, these rivers also deliver a slurry of fine particulates in the form of clay and silt as fresh and saltwater collide.

Rough seas are a seasonal characteristic of winter in the Bay Area and North Coast. Between storms, if the weather is calm and the seas are flat, fine sediments reaching the sea in river deltas are able to settle out and we may be blessed with a few days of decent dives. However, more typically in the wetter months, such sediments remain suspended in the water column carpeting the nearshore reef of the Pacific Ocean in a nearly impenetrable haze. Unless you are into what my friends and I refer to as "braille diving", your time may be better spent casting hooks or crab snares than bothering to suit up an hop in with a mask, fins and spear.

Dungeness Crab Dive

Crab Boil

Grass Rockfish

As we near the end of winter and the beginnings of spring, I am overwhelmed with a deep sadness to say goodbye to the fruitful fungi or winter but it is bitter sweet as I look forward to a long-awaited hello to the clearer and calmer waters of a spring freedive-spearfishing season! So this post is simply to say that if you were able to stay hydrated under rainfall in the woods this winter I am very happy for you, but it is finally time to rehydrate the dry wetsuits we have all tucked away in the corners of closets, garages and sheds. Goodbye my lovely wither fungi! Hello fish! We are hopping in, breath held in anticipation that you may come join us for dinner once more! Happy Spring Equinox everyone!

Throwback to good times catching and cooking with the Sea Dogs