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.
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
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