Two dives at Lover's Point with Guy and Tessa Foster July 26, 2015

I took Guy and Tessa Foster diving at Lover's Point yesterday.  We had 15 to 20 ft of visibility.  It was a warm 62 degrees at the surface and 57 degrees down 15 to 20 ft or so...  Guy and Tessa are newly certified divers and are making good progress diving.  We saw rockfish, nudibranchs, and had a visit from a curious harbor seal.

To see more from these dives please go to

https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6176386909364742961?authkey=CKO5re6Nrd7dxQE

 Guy and Tessa making their way into the water at Lover's Point.

 Tessa tightens up her weightbelt after descending.

 Tessa in a kelp bed.

 Sheep crab in the kelp.

 Guy getting a crab picture.

 Horned nudibranch, Hermissenda Crassicornis

 Guy nudibranch gazing.

 Guy getting a horned nudibranch picture.

 I got a tug on my fin when Guy and I surfaced near the end of our dive, we had a curious harbor seal.

Guy with a new friend.

Two dives on Mono-lobo, Carmel Bay July 23, 2015

Greg Hoberg and I had two fun dives on Mono-lobo yesterday.  We found 20 to 30 ft of visibility, chilly, near normal 54 degree water (next to Carmel trench) vs record warm 63 degree water in nearby Monterey Bay.  Mono-lobo lived up to its reputation for lingcod, cabezon, and rockfish of good size.  I managed to get a couple pictures of a wolf eel and a California Sheepshead as well.  Mono-lobo's kelp bed is thicker than last year but still thinner by far than normal.  There are still many sea urchins munching on the palm kelp and giant kelp.  Sea star numbers seem to be recovering from the wasting disease epidemic of last year.

For more pictures from these dives please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6175290897457565249?authkey=CNykot3PvOLhJQ

 Lingcod love to sit on a high perch where they can survey their surroundings.

 Greg eye to eye with a Cabezon.

 Cabezon closeup.

 Check out the pink lips on this Treefish.

 Wolf Eel

 Blood Star on the left, juvenile Rainbow Star in center, bat star on the right.

 Monolobo has great undersea terrain.

 We had a great place to do our safety stop at the end of our first dive.

 Greg with a transparent "What's it" TBD.

 Lingcod closeup

 Greg with a large lingcod

 Greg with an egg yolk jellyfish.

Two Very Good Dives on the Pinnacles, Carmel Bay July 22, 2015

Greg Hoberg and I finally got out diving again after four months (various vacations by both of us).  We had slightly choppy seas, a 3.5 ft swell, 58 degree water and 20 to 30 ft of visibility.  We made two dives on the Pinnacles, a marine sanctuary.  We saw several Cabezon, lingcod, kelp greenling, and various rockfish.  The Pinnacles still has lots of sea urchins but the kelp bed is not in too bad of shape, considering.  It was encouraging to see bat stars, spiny sea stars, leather stars, and ocher sea stars, they seem to be recovering from the sea star wasting epidemic of last year.

 A gopher (or maybe a copper) rockfish.

 Greg gets a Cabezon shot.

 I got a Cabezon shot, too.

Greg got a closeup of the Cabezon and yours truly.  The camera survived the ordeal.

 This is the remains of a kelp holdfast being devoured by sea urchins.  It has a brittle star infestation as well.

 A Treefish rockfish.

 China rockfish

 Palm kelp being devoured by sea urchins.  I was glad to see sea otters on the surface from the boat.  Hopefully the sea otters will hammer these guys.

 A nice sized Olive rockfish, it's really encouraging to see a nice sized one of these, they used to be common at this size.....I used to spear them.

 The first leather sea star I've seen in over a year.

Greg is getting a picture of a juvenile painted greenling hiding in the sea anemone just to the left of the pink orange hydro coral at the right of the picture.  Look close!

For more pictures from these dives please go to:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6174497005432812529?authkey=CJu91_Ss1sj7lAE

Nice dive off the west side of Lover's Point with Guy Foster, July 19, 2015.

Yesterday I took Guy on his first dive since his PADI open water certification (together with his daughter Tessa) a couple of weeks ago.  We had calm conditions and 15 to 20 ft of visibility.  Guy is an experienced snorkler which always helps people rapidly progress with scuba diving.  Water temperature by Guy's fancy new computer ranged from 66 degrees at the surface to 56 degrees down 32 ft, my computer showed 59 degrees.  With 7 mm suits cold was no issue.  I again was very pleased to see dense kelp everywhere it should be in summer and only one medium sized sea urchin and no small sea urchins.  The sea otters are hammering the grown urchins and the renewed population of bat stars, spiny sea stars, and, very happy to see, ochre sea stars.  Still no sign of any sunflower stars, they were dense in this area before the sea star wasting virus and now seem to be locally extinct.  Hope they get re-established.

To see the pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6173744626657754257?authkey=CPmGjJ6g1IzfzwE

 Guy assuring me that he is doing fine and not about to die.  He was right about that!

 Guy swims through a kelp bed.

 Guy checks out a well camouflaged painted greenling, about 1/3 up and 1/3 from the left.

 Guy with a few (sand) dollars more...

 Guy enjoys one of the large rock structures scattered through the area.

 Guy (ya, he's barely in the upper right corner) checks out a well decorated decorator crab, can you find it?

 I (nearly) caught a shot of Guy swimming across his first lingcod.

Guy points at a 5 inch long Hornyhead Turbot, first I've seen.

Two Pacific Grove shore dives; west side of Lover's Point, 7-8-2015 and Otter Cover, 7-9-2015

I enjoyed two solo shore dives last week on Wednesday and Thursday.  I wondered how tough local diving would be after my two months of warm water diving in Florida.  The water was 59 degrees, 5-7 degrees above average for Monterey Bay, I was very comfortable in my custom wetsuit and didn't get chilled at all.  Visibility ranged from 25 to 35 ft, very nice for this time of year.  There was virtually no swell so water entrees and exits were easy but boy, is a full suit, tank, and heavy weight belt a haul from the car down to the water and back!

For more pictures from my Lover's Point dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6170975862052420001?authkey=CMbyquOXh4i4BA

 Woolly Sculpin, I think.  About 3 to four inches long.  A bit small for my wide angle lens but it is such a cool fish I couldn't resist taking pictures of it.  This site is the only place I've seen this species of sculpin.  I suspect it is a combination of sand, rock, and shallow (15 to 20 ft where I've seen these).

 Woolly Sculpin

A sole or juvenile flounder comes to investigate all the attention the Woolly Sculpin is getting.

 I had good light, good visibility and I was very happy to see the kelp beds back to normal after last year's decimation by sea urchins.  I saw no small sea urchins, I suspect because the population of bat stars and spiny or knobby sea stars are well on there way back to normal after the terrible sea star wasting disease of last year.  I saw only a few medium sized sea urchins and they were in crevices.  Once sea urchins get large enough to be worth the trouble for sea otters, they get hammered - figuratively and frequently literally.

 A couple of the many bat stars I was very happy to see, together with a small orange carapace umbrella crab.

 For a few dollars more.....

 Spiny or knobby sea stars with kelp!

A large school of pile perch near my beach exit.

On Thursday I dived at my favorite Monterey Bay shore dive site, Otter Cove.  The kelp bed is back to its normal robust density and there were relatively few sea urchins to be seen.  I was pleased to see three juvenile lingcod on my dive but there were no large rockfish to be seen - Otter Cove gets spearfished every week so there are no adult sized fish to be seen there anymore, sad.  But it remains a rich, beautiful place to dive.

 Small lingcod was great to see.

 Another lingcod surveys his surroundings.

 A small blue rockfish upper center, and a small kelp rockfish lower left.  Years ago Otter Cove had great numbers of rockfish but it is now too heavily spearfished.

 Otter Cove has great seascapes.

Tube Anemone
For more pictures from this dive, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6171138074911426449?authkey=CIvWg-LBzfeupgE