Lush kelp covers much of the jumbled rocks near shore. The boulders making up this reef vary in size from basketball to the size of small houses. What results is a labyrinth of small caves, deep crevices and even a few small swim-throughs. Mini-walls are also prevalent. Depths here range from 10 to 35 feet.

As you can imagine, lobster love this habitat. While this spot is hit pretty hard during lobster season, the many deep holes seem to always hold a bug or two. And because this site is almost always calm, it is great night dive when lobsters come out to forage.

During the day, color and light dance over the Hen Rock reef. On the rocks are thousands of flecks of neon red and blue color provided by the ubiquitous blue-banded gobies. Colorful with tiny fangs and only about an inch long they make for great macro photo material. But as prolific as they are they can be very hard to approach before they scamper off into holes and crevices. Here is a trick: find one near an urchin. These gobies seem to be a bit more at ease and easier to approach. If they feel threatened they can quickly dart into the spines of their pincushion home. The deep dark color of the urchin spines also make for a good photo backdrop for the goby's stunning colors. 

Residing on the reef with blue-banded gobies are island kelpfish, a multitude of black-eyed gobies and painted greenlings. 

For more color you cannot miss the ever-abundant garibaldi. Our California State Marine Fish, the garibaldi gains its name from the legendary 19th century Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi who would wore bright orange shirts or vests into battle. I suspect our fish is even more colorful than the General. To take best advantage of the garibaldis stunning colors in your photos, position your camera in such a way as to have the fish in front of the rich blue-greens of the California kelp forest. To get your garibaldi to "pose," use an orange colored glove. Flip your hand around like another garibaldi and the fish will rush in to confront the perceived intruder. You can also snap your finger, which mimics the confrontational popping a garibaldi makes in its throat on meeting an impostor.

Other more muted fishy colors include the garibaldi's damselfish relative to the dusky blue blacksmith fish. In the shallows small schools of green opaleyes cruise. Other common kelp inhabitants include calico bass (most small) and a variety of perch species. 

The margin of this inner portion of the reef meets the sand at about 35 feet. This is another great spot to explore with bat rays, halibut, and sheep crabs on the flats. Occasionally seen cruising the edge kelp here are schools of barracuda and beautiful groups of salema, a member of the grunt family that in the right light can take on the color of gold. 

While all kelp forest near shore is good for beginning divers to explorer, there is an outer area full of patch reefs, huge boulder ridges, and massive pinnacles. In spite of the fact it is only 80 to 100 feet outward from the shallower reefs, in many ways these rocks are quite different. On a good visibility day, you can move away from shallow reefs and see the distant deeper formations in the hazy distance. Depths here are 50 to 85 feet at the sand bottom. The larger pinnacles rise 25 toward the surface. Kelp here is thin, with rock faces covered thickly with beautiful stands of gorgonian and there is the occasional rock scallop. One large boulder has a vertical crack with a resident eel population. Nudibranch hunting is much better here. During the late spring and summer, a passing giant black sea bass may be spotted. One particular individual that frequents this location is almost 5 feet long and estimated to be over 400 pounds!

With protected simple anchorage Hen Rock may be an easy visit, but it can still offer some great diving for both beginner and experienced divers. Photo opportunities are abundant and, if hunting, you could grab a bug or two. Check it out this winter and then revisit it in the summer.

Location: Just southeast of Long Point, north side (mainland side) of Catalina Island. GPS N 33°24.051', W 118°21.984' (GPS for reference only. Do not use as sole source of navigation.)

Access and Entry: Boat only.

Skill Level: All

Depths: Inner reef 10 to 35 feet; sloping to 85 feet on the outer reefs

Visibility: Good, averaging 40 feet.

Snorkeling: Very good in shallow sections near shore and Hen Rock.

Photography: Nice kelp vistas and excellent reef formations over nearshore reef for wide-angle. Gorgonian make for good wide-angle backdrops on outer rocks. Macro good for small fish inside but better deeper with more subject material.

Hunting: Good for lobster, little else.

Hazards: Boat traffic especially overhead on outer reefs.