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
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