SAN DIEGO — When you look out across San Diego County's beautiful waters, it's what's under the surface that can be extraordinary.
That's what Captain Lora Meyer found when she took a group of divers out near Pt. Loma on Marissa Charters.
"There was an extraordinary number of Salps chains that were in the water," Meyer said.
It seemed as if the entire ocean was like a movie.
"From the bottom through the entire water column it was incredible," she said.
It was a sight the divers never experienced.
"No, never, we've never seen that. And the divers that were diving that day had never seen anything, the salps that thick," Meyer said.
The number of salps that were sighted was beyond belief.
"Usually when you see salp chains there's 4, 5, 6. This was hundreds, thousands. It was incredible," she said.
What's a salp?
They are a jelly-like, filter-feeding marine, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
When the chains break apart that's when the reproduction kicks in. What created the bloom was an abundance of food.
"They eat phytoplankton and zooplankton, and the right amount can cause a bloom. And apparently they bloom very quickly and numerously," she said.
Even though salps look like Jellyfish they are not dangerous.
"They don't sting at all and they are not related to Jellyfish," Meyer said.
Meyer said that day is what makes scuba diving so special.
"The ocean is the last frontier... a lot of unexpected and happy surprises," she said.
Watch more video here.
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