A Grumman Avenger, one of 2 torpedo bombers that collided and crashed on a training mission during WWII, lies at 125 feet depth in the channel. Careful work by Captain Terrence Shinn found a small bump by depth sounder. Mark and Robert dropped a line at the spot, and made the first dive on the wreck. They reported the airplane in good shape, though degraded from previous visits. With CINMS Research Coordinator Sarah Fangman, I dropped quickly down the marker line, then swam upcurrent along the trail that the anchor had dragged through the brittle stars in the sand. The light airplane's skin is peeling away as seawater dissolves the aluminum. In the brief time before our dive computers demanded that we ascend, we photographed and videoed the wreck. Something, probably a boat anchor, had torn off the canopy since the previous survey a year earlier. The engine had dropped deeper into the sand. This fossil seems unlikely to make it to its billionth birthday.

The majority of our dives were on the Winfield Scott. This passenger vessel, originally built to carry 49ers to the California goldfields, plowed into Anacapa Island in a thick fog in 1853. The crew and passengers all survived, as did the valuable cargo including gold bullion. Most of the passengers had to stay in Frenchy's cove several days while the rescue ship dropped the gold off in San Francisco before returning for them. Despite the age of the wreck, a surprising amount has survived. Big sections of the paddle wheels have become encrusted with coralline algae. The line "of his bones are coral made" drifted through my head. With Ranger Ian Williams of the National Park Service, I tested the reliability of underwater surveys, by repeated measurements. I found it an exhausting and disorienting task to swim the tape between benchmarks, like some schoolyard game gone too far. A huge piston lies on the sea floor: the ship's engine developed a pressure of only 17 inches of water, so gigantic pistons were needed to yield useful power. Development of stronger steel has already relegated these anatomical features to evolutionary history. But, aided by the coralline algae, the bones of this creature may survive at least a few more centuries.

On a Sunday of perfect weather we dived on the Aggi, a sailing ship that survived into the age of steam and steel, as a low-cost, low-speed transport. While the Aggi was being towed to Panama in 1915, a severe storm forced the tow rope to be cut. The Aggi drifted ashore at Talcott Shoals on Santa Rosa, where she became the object of battles over salvage, and a convenient set for films with nautical themes. Robert Schwemmer might smile and call the thick growth of kelp "bioclutter." Underneath, much of the wreck remains. Her structure forms much of the bottom in that particular area, with occasionally recognizable parts of masts or engines.

Already at an evolutionary dead end during her life, she has a good chance for a long afterlife.