Another Humpback on yesterday's dive at Cypress Point and another good dive off Point Joe

Greg Hoberg and I dived near the outer rock at Cypress Point and at a healthy kelp bed off Point Joe.  We had 53 degree temperatures and 20 to 30 ft of visibility.  We spotted some humpbacks feeding along the kelp beds in the bay north of Cypress Point and decided to dive a small kelp patch between the rocks off Cypress Point.  During our dive  we were looking up at a dive bombing sea lion when a humpback swam right over us!  The humpback also swam right under us when we were back up at Greg's boat, but our cameras were already in the boat at that point.

 Greg with our anchor.  Greg typically repositions the anchor at the start of every dive so that we can get the anchor up to leave after our dive.

 Almost a good picture of a diving sea lion....if he hadn't turned his head just as I pushed the shutter...

 Look above and just to the right of the two sea urchins in the foreground to see a beautiful painted greenling just in front of a decorator crab.

 The dive bombing sea lion caused us to look up just as the shadow of the huge humpback passed overhead.

 So cool to see a humpback go by!

Greg with a large, patient lingcod.
To see more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6187854957862994737?authkey=CNTr6cSZz4m-BA

Our second dive was at a healthy kelp bed that we dived for the first time last week off of Point Joe.  It is a beautiful dive site with great rock structures, lots of shy sea otters, and due to the many otters, relatively few sea urchins and healthy stands of giant and bull kelp.

 A beautiful cabezon on his perch.

 Acorn barnacles

 This is a beautiful dive site.

One of several lingcod we saw on this dive.

To see more pictures from our dive off Point Joe, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6187854528161247809?authkey=CNPfpY-_zfaaBA

Very good dives off Monastery Beach and off Point Joe August 18,2015

Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of calm seas to dive a couple of new sites for us yesterday.  The first dive was on the outer edge of the Monastery Beach kelp bed, the second was on a healthy kelp bed off of Point Joe, Pebble Beach.  As we cruised past Pt Lobos Marine Preserve towards Monastery Beach we suddenly had a huge Humpback whale breach just a couple hundred yards in front of us.  The Monastery kelp bed is still very dense but it has been slightly reduced which made it easier for us to anchor at the depth we wanted to dive at.  Water temp was 57 at the surface, 53 at depth, visibility was around 25 ft.  We saw lots of lingcod, include a number of large ones, on the dive.  This area is now protected and it really shows with the population of lingcod and cabezon.

 Beautiful copper rockfish

 Greg with one of the many sea hare sea slugs we saw on this dive.

 Sea Hare sea slug with a fish eating anemone.

 Greg with another sea hare.

 One of the large lingcod we saw.

Greg with a very nice sized, and patient, cabezon.

For more pictures from our Monastery Beach dive, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6184865980184768081?authkey=CPzRj_Xquou-jQE

Our second dive was at the remaining healthy kelp bed off Point Joe.  We again averaged about 25 ft of visibility and 53 degree temperatures.  The area had excellent rock formations and a very fun, curious, Harbor seal.

 Much of the kelp off Point Joe is gone since the sea star wasting disease eliminated major predators of sea urchins and their numbers exploded, but this kelp bed is still intact with urchins only in hidden crevices thanks to the many sea otters that live here.

 This area has excellent rock structures, I look forward to diving this site again.

 A beautiful juvenile Treefish (rockfish), about three inches long.

 A black eyed goby with the juvenile treefish.

 We had the company of a very curious, playful, juvenile harbor seal for much of this dive.

At this point I decided to start shooting video of our new friend.

https://youtu.be/nbaUsCRwXGk

http://youtu.be/C_K2uPND83g

http://youtu.be/qp_00o1HhDs

http://youtu.be/aQJX253-87g

For more pictures from our fun dive off Point Joe with a curious juvenile harbor seal, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6184860266225313521?authkey=CNTBt_nHio1o

Two dives at a new Pescadero Point dive site August 17, 2015

Greg Hoberg and I made two dives at a new site off Pescadero Point.  Sea conditions were very good but conditions were foggy.  Visibility averaged at least 25 ft.  54 degrees at the surface but a normal, fairly chilly 52 degrees at the bottom.  We had visits from a sea lion and harbor seal but I didn't get any decent shots of them.  The kelp bed in the area is significantly thinner than normal but still reasonably intact overall, the sea urchin infestation here is not as bad as at many of our sites.  We saw lingcod and cabezon as well as some cool sculpin and juvenile kelp greenling.  We found a really cool cave/cavern/submarine grotto on the first dive.  We also noticed several strands of giant kelp strewn across the bottom instead of floating upright like normal, don't know why it is doing that.  For more pictures from these two dives (the second dive at the site was decided upon when we could get our anchor extracted from the kelp at the end of the first dive...) please see:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6184143121454314945?authkey=CK_6s7OzhPbBaA

 Painted Greenling with coralline algae.

 Blue lined Perch

 We found a beautiful swim through cavern.

 Can you find the sculpin?  Upper right corner.

 Can you find the kelpfish?  lowere center

 Egg yolk jellyfish, over easy.

 A pair of white dendronotid nudibranchs grazing on hydroids with a white, formerly orange lacy bryozoan that has just been devoured by the bat star.

 Greg with some of the large rock structure found off Pescadero Point.

Greg looking at the juvenile kelp greenling in the foreground.

Good dives off Mono-lobo and near shore SE of Cypress Point

Greg Hoberg and I enjoyed very good dives at Mono-lobo and SE of Cypress Point on Tuesday.  Sea conditions were good with only a tiny shallow wind swell so it was easy and comfortable for the shallow dive near Cypress Point.  Carmel's (and Monterey's) kelp beds have been tremendously reduced and in some areas practically eliminated by a plague of sea urchins which is the result of the annihilation of sea stars by the wasting disease in 2014 and 2013.  The sea urchins are stripping out all the giant, bull and palm kelp.  It makes it easy to take Greg's boat into areas that are normally inaccessible due to kelp so we are diving new sites but we are very concerned about the ecological impact.  We enjoyed visibility ranging from 20 ft to 45 ft on these dives, water temperature at depth was 54 degrees.  Tuesday the humpback whales were offshore on the edge of the Monterey Canyon and in the Carmel Canyon branch of the Monterey Canyon.  We saw Rizzo's dolphin and common dolphin as well.

 Greg "splashes" at the start of our dive.

 Mono-lobo is a magical place to dive when the visibility and light are so good.  The giant kelp forests there have been radically reduced by a plague of sea urchins since the sea star wasting disease eliminated so many of their predators.

 Vermilion rockfish

 Greg swims past a collapsed stand of giant kelp.  We are seeing more of this and we aren't sure of the cause.

 A plague of sea urchins.  The small palm kelp to the right of the picture has a swarm of sea urchins devouring it.

 Greg swims under the giant kelp canopy on the way back to our boat.  Usually it is very important to be sure you have enough air at the end of your dive to do a series of shallow "hops" under the giant kelp to get back to the boat but these days it wouldn't be difficult to just swim around or through kelp patches.

To see more from our Mono-lobo dive, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6182330648611366353?authkey=CK2fh9TpotfEqAE

 We took advantage of the tiny swell and thinned out kelp beds to dive near shore SE of Cypress Point.

 Sea urchin barrens.  Normally this area would have a dense overhead canopy of giant kelp and the bottom would be densely covered with Palm kelp.  I hope something takes down the plague of sea urchins so that the kelp can recover.

 Beautiful water clarity and great sunshine allowed getting pictures of some remaining stands of kelp.

 Greg swims past isolated stands of Bull kelp.

 Greg found a swarm of beautiful pinkish reddish Hopkin's Rose nudibranchs.

 Greg takes a picture of Hopkin's Rose nudibranchs.

Greg starts towards the surface at the end of our dive.


To see more from our SE of Cypress Point dive - bright light, pretty though sparse, kelp, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6182331191941977073?authkey=CJrmorL225HIFQ

A good dive at Pescadero Point and fun with anchovy gorging Humpbacks at Cypress Point - above and below the water.

Greg Hoberg and I had two very good dives today.  The first was Pescadero Point, 25 ft visibility, 54 degree temperature.  Pescadero Point has very rich life and did not disappoint.  After our Pescadero Point dive we cruised out to Cypress Point and saw a large number of Humbacks feasting on millions of anchovies forced up to the surface and against the rocks just offshore and into the kelp beds.  The humpbacks were surface lunge feeding which is always awesome to watch.  After watching awhile we carefully picked a point at Cypress Point to anchor the boat and hang out and hope a humpback would come past.  One did, twice.  We were also entertained by dive bombing sea lions that were also feasting on anchovies.

 A beautifully colored lingcod.

 This Giant Green Anemone is eating a sea urchin.  At the left inner margin of the anemone's arms you can see a tiny juvenile painted greenling hiding for safety.

 A really cool camouflaged crab on the orange encrusting sponge.

 Greg cruises the top of a mini wall with a sitting black rockfish.

 Greg getting a cabezon picture.

 The cabezon finally lost patience with us.

If you look closely you can actually see this is a pair of crabs.  The second, smaller crab is upside down grasping the larger red rock crab.

To see more pictures from our Pescadero Point dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6181593376352621009?authkey=CPqQrYPGru3Mew

 A surface lunge feeding humpback off Cypress Point.

Greg captured this great picture of a Humpback lunge feeding.  Check out the barnacles on his throat.

 Anchovies under Greg's boat after I splashed.

 We had a very convenient pinnacle to hang out on and watch the action come by.

 Looking toward the surface up our anchor line, surrounded by anchovies.

 We had lots of dive bombing visits from the sea lions joining the humpbacks in the anchovy massacre.

 Greg with a sea lion.

 Greg with another sea lion.

The humpback came by twice before the anchovies moved away from our pinnacle.  I managed to get one photo where you can see him.  Really cool.

To see more pictures from our Cypress Point fun with Humpbacks and dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6181592323038925249?authkey=COGehvGHpoC5nQE