San francisco and the sea of cortez - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 54

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SAN FRANCISCO AND THE SEA OF CORTEZ
T HE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES was a stimulating, rewarding
place to work. Just its location in the middle of beautiful Golden Gate
Park was, to me, a perk. Often Betty brought Eve and Amy and we
would sit in Shakespeare's Garden to eat our picnic lunch and feed the
squirrels. We also made good friends at the Academy. The best were
Dusty Chivers and his wife, Lynn, who with their son, Dana, remained
our close friends until Dusty and Lynn died.
Dusty worked in the Invertebrate Zoology Department and loved
his work. Over the years he developed a broad knowledge of the biol-
ogy of this huge, diverse group of animals, especially those of San Fran-
cisco Bay and central California. Before we met, Dusty and his bud-
dies were among the first scuba divers to explore the waters around Point
Lobos and the precipitous Carmel submarine canyon that comes with-
in mere yards of Monastery Beach, just south of Carmel. They made
insanely deep dives—to over two hundred feet—somehow managing
not to kill themselves from nitrogen narcosis, the bends, or hypother-
mia. In the days before wet suits they would dive in long underwear
and try to warm up afterward by building a bonfire on the beach.
The highlight of my work at the Academy was participating in the
June 1964 Scientific Expedition to the Sea of Cortez. The expedition