Sea Lions! Dives at Los Lobos rocks off Sobranes Point south of Pt Lobos and off Cypress Point

Greg Hoberg and I made two dives on Wednesday and we took advantage of the calm conditions to cruise south of Point Lobos for our first dive, ever, at Lobos Rocks (the Spanish that came into California called the sea lions sea wolves, hence Point Lobos and Lobos Rocks, both areas are full of sea lions).  Our second dive was at an old favorite, Cypress point.  Both these dive sits require calm seas to be safe for both boat and divers.  We had a very strong current with the incoming tide at Lobos Rocks so having excellent underwater navigation skills, being in good shape, and being sure the boat was safely anchored were all critical to us diving safely with no backup in the boat to do a rescue if we missed it in the current...  The water is quite deep - 80 to 100 ft, all around the Lobos Rocks which are really pinnacles coming up from the bottom about 1/2 mile off Sobranes Point.   I was really pleased to see lots of sea lions floating in groups around the rocks so I figured there wasn't an actively hunting white shark in the area.  We had 25 ft of visibility on this dive with lots of stuff in the water, some of it obviously by visual and olfactory cues, from the dense population of sea lions.  This dive became all about being entertained by the curious sea lions.


This is the more northerly of the two Los Lobos Rocks, the other is hidden behind this one.  This was the closest point we could safely anchor the boat at, in 60 ft of water, surrounded by 80 to 100 ft.  There was a strong current running so we had to pull ourselves down the anchor line and hug the big rock ridge  at the bottom to cross over to the rock in 80 ft of water, we realized it would be critical to be able to navigate back to the anchor on the bottom at the end of our exploration of the rock so we only made it half way around the rock because we were so distracted by the playful sea lions.

 These metridium sea anemones are at 75 ft as we approached our anchor perched up on the ridge, you can just make out the anchor line past Greg.

 When we got to the rock we were swarmed by curious, playful, darting, sea lions.  The speed of the sea lion was directly proportional to the square of how close it was to you!

 We had as many sea lions for entertainment as we usually have blue rockfish, in fact, I would say we had a plethora of sea lions.

 To see more sea lions please go to:  https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6102185758723859617?authkey=COXixNCm7-2_TA

 Black and yellow rockfish at Cypress Point

 The inner wash rocks at Cypress Point are normally very turbulent, like a giant washing machine, so you find Giant Green Anemones here, like this one with a lingcod.  This site is only safe to dive when seas are calm.  For more pictures from this dive, please go to:  https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6102215018210431025?authkey=CIbN8_f1q8bprwE