n the summer of 1983, I taught a field methods in underwater archaeology course for the USC History Department, with the classes and diving all at USC’s field station at Big Fisherman Cove on Catalina Island.
I focused the classes on real-time scuba diving in Catalina’s entrancing offshore waters in the San Pedro Channel stuffed with golden Garibaldis, leopard sharks and tasty calico bass.
Most days, the 12 students and I — all duly certified PADI divers — met early for a brief class after breakfast, then hurried down to the cove in our wetsuits, grabbed our dive gear, and hopped into the small boats, since the wind often came up in the afternoons (reducing the underwater visibility).
As I noted sarcastically to the students, “If we can’t see, how can we locate anything at all down there?”
