Mono-Lobo, Carmel Bay, 8-20-13

Greg Hoberg and I dived Mono-Lobo in Carmel Bay this Tuesday.  We saw Rizzo's dolphins just offshore of there - about 20 of them, always cool to see.  I learned this year that they are strictly squid eaters and based on their movements I'm guessing they were feeding at the edge of the trench there.

Greg maneuvered his boat through dense kelp to get us to shallow enough water for comfortable anchoring - 45 ft.  When I hit the water it felt like liquid ice - 48 degrees - a chilly dive and my fingers were barely functional by the end of the dive.  We had visibility of 15 to 20 ft, not bad for late summer.  As always the life on the rocks at this dive site is just beautiful, rivals anything in the South Pacific if you've got enough light and visibility to see it.  We saw several different kinds of nudibranch, the first one below is a Cockerell's Dorid, the first one I've ever seen.  Greg spotted it on a kelp holdfast - it was maybe 2 inches long.  The second nudibranch below is a white dendronotid grazing on a colony of hydroids- someday I'll get a good picture of one of these...

For a few more pictures from this dive go to:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/5914994459517518449?authkey=CMzT78bB4K2WrQE