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