Greg Hoberg and I had two good dives last Wednesday in Carmel Bay. The first dive was on the Pinnacles. We had very good visibility - at least 30 ft horizontal, 45 ft vertical. In addition to all the usual beautiful invertebrate life on the rocks and the usual blue and black rockfish and lingcod we saw a couple cool China rockfish.
Purple striped sea nettles are common on the Pinnacles this time of year, in the top 20 ft or so of water. We could see lots of tiny critters (copepods or ??) that were getting gobbled up by the jellyfish.
Cool China rockfish let me get close.
Greg gets a shot of a lingcod that I've gotten too close to...
for more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/5942545526903664401?authkey=CJmf9aqWxZ3EhgE
Our second dive was off the "Castle" house on the north shore of Carmel Bay. We anchored in 60 ft of water about 150 ft from the waves braking on the north shore cliff. We had very good visibility - 30 ft of so - on this dive too.
Red sea anemone with a kelp holdfast that has been ripped free from the bottom suspended above it.
Here is a huge kelp holdfast ( see Greg in photo for perspective)that has been ripped free of the bottom by the rough seas in the days before our dive.
Greg gets a photo of a lingcod.
We saw several sea star legs left over from sea stars that have succumbed to the sea star wasting diseased that is underway up and down the US and Canada west coasts. Scientists do not yet know the cause. I hope it isn't due to ocean acidification...
For more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/5942554462565694113?authkey=CNDm2MCc_cKdWg
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