Dives at Mono-lobo and around wash rock NE of Cypress Point, March 11, 2015

Greg Hoberg and I had two good dives last Wednesday.  We had extremely calm, flat, seas, with no discernible swell.  Water temperature down at Carmel Bay seems to have returned to a more normal 50-51 degrees while Monterey Bay is still a warmer than usual 56 degrees.  On the cruise down we saw a large group of 40-50 Risso's dolphins.  We also saw a couple of Gray whales in the distance.  Visibility at Mono-lobo was a disappointing 15 -20 ft so we made our second dive inside the north side of Cypress Point where we had 35 ft of visibility.  These were my last Monterey and Carmel winter dives for this year.  My wife and I set out for Florida next week so my next dive blogs will be from diving the Gulf of Mexico, my old stomping grounds.

 We ran into a vermilion rockfish that was more confident and cooperative than this species typically seems to be.

 This is the largest rockfish I've seen in awhile.  This is a copper rockfish, for scale, the anemone below (and just behind...) is at least 10 inches across.  I put this rockfisn at about 5 lbs or so.  This site has been made a marine protected area and we are seeing more large fish as time goes by.

 Treefish (a type of rockfish), they are always shy.

Greg with a large lingcod.

To see more pictures from the Mono-lobo dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6125733918903358497?authkey=CKn2qfiViOS1Og

 We were chilled from our first dive so on this dive, which was shallow - 8 ft to 36 ft - we swam and circled a large wash rock.

 Greg with a transparent "whatsit" - a pelagic salp, I think.

 We were briefly visited by a sea lion but he was too shy for closeups.

The extremely rare, calm, conditions allowed us to comfortably go up shallow on the wash rock where you find Giant Green Anemones and a colony of green anemones which thrive in turbulent conditions.  There was also lots of sea urchins, hopefully the sea otters, wolf eels, and sheepshead will cull there numbers in weeks and months to come.  I hope there are the usual big thriving kelp beds this summer when I return to dive Monterey and Carmel again.

To see more pictures from our circumnavigation of the wash rock NE of Cypress Point please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6125733484647903633?authkey=CM_w29n976PXag

Three dives in two days at Mono-lobo, Carmel Bay. March 4,5, 2015

Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of exceptionally calm seas to take his boat down to Mono-lobo twice this week.  A couple of things we noticed was that the water was 57 degrees in Monterey and 50 degrees on our dives in Carmel Bay, also, the water turned from mostly greenish to very blue when we rounded Cypress Point into Carmel Bay and the temperature dropped.  Perhaps this is because of the canyon that comes into Carmel Bay and terminates right next to Mono-lobo and Monastery Beach?  Both days we saw several Gray whales and lots of common dolphins.  We had great sunny diving conditions and very good visibility ranging from 25 to 40 ft.  Due to assembly carelessness I discovered my flash wasn't working on the first day so I took natural light pictures and several videos.  Mono-lobo is a protected area so we saw many Cabezon and Lingcod.  On the second day Greg also found a pair of Wolf eels.  I was very glad to see the wolf eels, they munch on sea urchins and there are way too many urchins and too little kelp since the sea star wasting disease devastated sea star populations.

 The multi-legged sea star in this picture may be (TBD) a juvenile sunflower sea star.  I haven't seen a sunflower star in well over a year (they normally are very common) since the wasting disease swept through the sea star population.  That is a brittle star on the orange puff sponge.  Natural light photos..

 This natural light photo of a nice sized cabezon shows off their excellent camouflage.

 Mono-lobo has fantastic canyons and rock structures, diving it with sunlight and clear water is wonderful.

Here is a video of Greg taking pictures of a cabezon in palm kelp and dealing with the sea surge.  Greg with cabezone

Seascape with sea surge

A plethora of blue rockfish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pynogUl_0tE&feature=youtu.be

Camouflaged Cabezon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJWvfQZx0k4&feature=youtu.be

For more pictures (all natural light) from the first day of diving please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6123515784367012209?
authkey=CKetkPnvgMvceA

On our second day of diving I had my strobe working again and Greg found a pair of Wolf eels tucked into their lair.  They are very shy and it is hard to get them illuminated for a decent photo.

 Greg has his video light on to shoot video of a lingcod on his perch.  Greg took the following picture of me with the lingcod.

 Greg has found a pair of wolf eels in their crevasse.  Look for blueish gray head down to the right from his camera.

 It is hard to get good pictures of wolf eels, they are always back in their holes.  Greg took the following closeup of the wolf eel on the left.

To see more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6123519903159700673?authkey=CKHPlOjg8evHRg