Cypress Point Wash Rocks, 7-17-2014

Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of the very small swell conditions to dive around a pair of wash rocks just off Cypress Point.  This is a great dive with good conditions, a real washing machine if sea conditions are other than ideal.  We again had exceptionally warm water - 56 degrees - and great visibility for this time of year averaging 30 ft or so.

 It used to be rare to see sea urchins out in the open - the medium to large ones get hammered by sea otters, but since the sea star wasting disease decimated the sea stars that feed on small sea urchins there are lots more sea urchins out.  Also the kelp beds are by far the thinnest I've ever seen them in the summer - you can see lots of empty holdfasts while diving, suspect it is the sea urchin explosion...

 Greg is in the lower right of the picture facing away as he follows a wall.  He was being buzzed by a nice sized sea lion.

 I think this female kelp greenling was guarding her territory as I was able to get a couple pictures of the normally shy fish.

 Giant Green Anemones are common on this site because they love turbulent water conditions which are the norm for Cypress Point.

Greg with a lingcod.

 For more pictures from this dive please see:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6039363850143969985?authkey=CM2cweG9xJOcDQ