What divers saw on rare trip to photograph wildlife at California marine sanctuary

Last month, Lee and a handful of other highly qualified divers spent a total of five days diving down to 250 feet to see and photograph the sponges, anemones and Bocaccio rockfish that make their home between the peaks and valleys of Cordell Bank are. It was the fourth time they’d dived in the area but the first in six years, an experience Lee calls “sensory overload.”

“Every square inch of rock or substrate is literally covered with sometimes multiple layers of invertebrates. They have sponges that grow on anemones, on corals,” he said. “Just to see the vibrancy, the diversity and the sheer amount of biomass and life there is just amazing.”

As part of the National Marine Sanctuary of the same name, Cordell Bank requires a high level of diving skills. It also requires permission to drop even a downline, a line used by divers to descend and locate the dive site, at least at depths less than 300 feet. Lee’s group has received permission, as part of an ongoing partnership with the shrine, to record still images and virtual reality videos — which have yet to be released — for their education and outreach programs, including in schools.

“It really helps us spread awareness of the existence of this special place and its value,” said Jennifer Stock, education and outreach coordinator at National Marine Sanctuaries Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank. “When they see the photos, people go ‘Wow, that’s right off our coast?’ With those beautiful pink and blue colors, it looks like a tropical coral reef, but it’s in the cold, temperate ocean.”

Bay Area Underwater Explorers has about 15 to 20 members, mostly executives from Silicon Valley, who dive in their spare time, usually in Monterey Bay. Lee, chief technology officer at a data company called Pure Storage, lives in Pebble Beach with his wife Allison, who is also a diver and videographer and was part of the group of five that went to Cordell Bank.

The base of the 4½ by 9½ mile underwater plateau or seamount is 300 feet high, with peaks that rise higher. The group’s recent dives ranged from 140 to 250 feet.

“In the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary grand plan, that’s considered shallow because it extends to 10,000 feet,” Lee said. “But in the scheme of where people have gone, it’s definitely on the deep side.”

It only takes a few minutes to get to the bottom where divers spend around 45 minutes before having another 45 minutes to 1 hour to slowly return and decompress. On this trip, they were rewarded with sightings of giant rockfish, giant Pacific octopuses and a mother and calf humpback whale pair.

The group’s previous trips to the bank took place in 2013, 2014 and 2016. Because even the way to the construction site is difficult, in wind, fog and high seas, if the weather is not good, they don’t go.

While most of the group’s trips are personally funded by the divers, this one was funded by Lee’s private foundation called the Lee Oceans Foundation because it had a charitable purpose — to support education.

Lee believes it’s important to raise awareness of the beauty of the place as well as the impact of climate change on the ocean as there is much more knowledge about what’s going on on land with wildfires and heatwaves.

“What’s under the ocean, even if it’s only a stone’s throw away, is out of sight, so easily dismissed, out of mind,” he said. “But it’s all super connected.”

Tara Duggan (she/she) is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @taraduggan