Mono-lobo, October 5, 2013 Whales in Carmel Bay and a great dive

Greg Hoberg and I caught calm sea conditions last Saturday and we proceeded to Carmel Bay in Greg's zodiac rib.  We checked various favorite spots on the way but Cypress Point still had too much surge to make a great dive.  The Pinnacles didn't look as clear as we had hoped so we crossed the bay to Mono-lobo.  On the way we spotted whale spouts and soon had two groups of humpbacks feeding around us with lots of sea lions.  We also saw Rizzo dolphins and another type of black and white dolphin (TBD).

We dived at the outer edge of the long Mono-lobo kelp bed in a dive from 65 to 30 ft.  Huge rock structure with cracks.  It was sometimes pretty dark under the still heavy kelp cover but we had 30 to 35 ft visibility with chilly 49 degree water.  We saw cabezon, ling cod, lots of nudibranchs, Pacific Greenling, Painted Greenling, and lots of blue rockfish.  We could hear the humpbacks during much of the dive, the Carmel branch of the Monterey Trench is only about 100 to 200 yards away from Mono-lobo and the whales were feeding at the near shore end of it.  The sounds they make are quite different when feeding on anchovies vs what you hear when snorkeling with them in southern waters during their mating season.

 Greg getting a wide angle close up of a small kelpfish to the right of this photo.

 Greg getting some shots of a couple of Metridium anemones.

A beautiful Cabezon.

For more pictures please see:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/5932832307032149457?authkey=CPGE9unOjLLR9wE