Mono-lobo for a second day April 21, 2016

Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of a second day with calm seas to make a morning dive at Mono-lobo.  Similar to the day before we stayed between 55 and 35 ft down with 30 ft of visibility and chilly 49 degree water temperature.  No whales or Orcas on our boat dive today, though.

 Greg leads our descent down the anchor line, first task is to make sure the anchor is secure and that we'll be able to pull it up after the dive.  We anchored in one of the parse stands of Giant Kelp that remain at Mono-lobo despite the plague of urchins.

 Greg's spotting light makes it easier to keep track of him after I've been distracted by something...

 We saw several ling cods, a couple Cabezon, only a couple Greenlings, and very few rock fish.

 Greg with a ling cod.

 Greg with another ling cod.

 Greg swims past a marine biology experiment we found.  Clearly recently placed because it has no noticeable growth on it yet.

 It looks like the experiment is a series of plates attached to the bottom with a grated cage over it, probably to keep grazers like sea urchins off.

A lonely, but healthy, spiny sea star.  In the past we would see these in the hundreds on a dive.  They are a major predator of baby sea urchins but they were decimated by sea star wasting disease starting in 2013 now we have a plague of sea urchins clearing out the kelp forests.

For more pictures from this dive please go to:  https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6276556195864157921?authkey=CMey44322s74bw

Mono-lobo, Carmel Bay Whales and Orcas on the ride out, good visibility during Mono-lobo dive 4-2-2016

Finally had both good conditions and scheduling to go diving again!  We had about a five foot combined swell but very little wind chop so easy cruising.  We swung offshore on our way down to Carmel Bay and spotted whale spouts and one breach.  Then we say three Orcas, two females and a male.  Greg got this nice shot of the two females:

After spending some time with the Orcas we left as a whale watching boat approached.  We wanted to go diving.

We choose Mono-lobo, which is just beyond a long swim out from South Monastery Beach and just before you reach the boundary of Point Lobos State Marine Sanctuary.

I took this as we approached our Mono-lobo diving area.  You can see the Monastery and Monastery Beach to the left of the photo.  Mono-lobo is straight ahead, Point Lobos Marine Sanctuary to the right out of the photo.

We are about 150 yards off Mono-lobo.  In the past, dense kelp beds made getting into water less than 70 ft deep to anchor difficult but the plague of purple sea urchins since the sea star wasting plague has removed about 90% of the Giant and Palm Kelp.

We had 40 ft of visibility, chilly 49 degree water temperature, and excellent sunlight (with almost no kelp shading...).  We saw a couple Cabezon, quite a few ling cod, but only about 20% of the normal quantity of rock fish, I suspect this is due to the loss of the kelp forest.

 Ling cod

 Greg swims past a cliff with Metridium sea anemones

 Cabezon with one of the three varieties of sea urchin that now infest the site.

 Gre approaches a ling cod

Greg swims through one of the parse patches of Giant Kelp that are still left at the site.

To see more Orca photos and more photos from our dive, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6276555770949863841?authkey=CMLo-_-J15PlYw

Monterey and Carmel Nudibranchs April 18, 2016

I've only made a single dive so far this year primarily due to unrelenting large swells.  Right now the forecast shows possible diving conditions for later this week, fingers crossed.

Here is a collection of local nudibranch pictures I've taken over several years and a bit about the different nudibranchs.

This is a sea lemon nudibranch, one of the most common nudibranchs in the Monterey and Carmel Bay region.  These nudibranchs range from juveniles an inch or so in length up to five or six inches in length.  When I took this photo I was focused on the nudibranch and didn't even realize that a coralline sculpin was seated next to it.  This nudibranch feeds on sponges.

This is the Clown Nudibrank aka orange and white nudibranch (Catalina Triopha).  We see these nudibranchs several times a year, they range from about an inch in length to four or five inches. Feeds on erect bryozoan colonies.

A pair of horned nudibranchs (Hermissenda Crassicornis).  These are fairly common if you watch closely for them, frequently about an inch or so in length.  These nudibranchs feed on cnidarians like hydroids, anemones, and corals.

A Hilton's nudibranch, in some ways similar to the horned nudibranch.  This one is with a colony of strawberry anemones and I think was feeding on them, they feed on cnidarians like strawberry anemones, hydroids, and corals.

Greg Hoberg with a white edged Dirona nudibranch (Dirona albolineata).  We see these nudibranchs infrequently, they feed on small snails (gastropods), bryozoans, tunicates, and cnidarians (hydroids, anemones, corals).

Cocherel's Dorid, about two inches long.  Some color similarity to the Clown Nudibranch but quite different in physical details.

A pair of amorous yellow dorids aka white speckled nudibranchs.  Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites and are frequently seen mating with each other.

A pure white Ohdner's Nudibranch laying eggs.

A Hopkin's Rose Nudibranch, it is hard to figure out head from tail, it makes me think of "The Trouble with Tribbles" or "thing" from The Adam's Family...It feeds on rose colored bryozoans which give it it's color.

A Spanish Shawl nudibranch, I rarely have seen these small nudibranchs, about 1/2 inch long.

A rainbow nudibranch, dendronotus iris, laying a string of its white eggs on a tube anemone on which it, and its young, feed.  This nudibranch feeds on tube anemones by carefully climbing the tube of the anemone, raising it's head above the tentacles, then striking.  The tube anemone quickly pulls down into its tube, drawing the nudibranch in with it.  The nudibranch munches off some tentacles, then crawls back out of the tube. Typically the tube anemone survives and regrows its tentacles.  Here's a video of a rainbow nudibranch attacking a tube anemone that I shot at the Coastguard Breakwater in Monterey last year:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKNOBCCgCSU

San Diego Dorid, this nudibranch feeds on sponges but in this case may be feeding on cup corals.

Triopha maculata nudibranch, the only one I've seen.  It feeds on erect and encrusting bryozoans like the ones encrusting the blade of kelp this nudibranch is on.

White dendronotid nudibranch (Dendronotus albus).  This nudibranch feeds on hydroids and other cnidarians (corals and anemones).  This nudibranch is feeding on the brownish branched hydroid just to its right and closer to the foreground.

Yellow edged cadlina nudibranch (Cadlina luteomarginata), this nudibranch feeds on sponges, as this one is doing.

First Dive of 2016! - Pescadero Point Wash Rock, 3/31/2016

I finally dived yesterday after more than five and half months of almost continuously rough seas prevented diving.  Yesterday we had quite calm conditions with almost no surge at Pescadero Point.  We had forty feet of vertical visibility and an average of about 30 ft of horizontal visibility at the bottom.  Gone is the warm water of the past year, we had 52 degrees at the surface and a chilly (only one degree warmer than the coldest we've ever dived) 48 degrees at 50 ft.  We had good light with lots of sun and very very little remaining giant kelp at a site which is normally completely enveloped in heavy kelp beds.  A plague of sea urchins due to the decimation of their sea star predators by a sea star wasting disease starting in 2013.  We had a mixture of the usual rock fish, ling cods, and cabezon.  A very enjoyable, but bone chilling, dive.  On the way back we cruised looking for whales and saw several Gray whales and a pod of long beak common dolphins.  We decided against a second dive in Monterey Bay because it looked like we'd only have had about 10 ft of visibility (but 57 degree surface temperature...).

Below are a few pictures from our dive, for more, please go to: https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6268791168348168465?authkey=CJnI7u2A9Nmu3gE

 My favorite local fish subject, a Cabezon.

 Greg with a ling cod.

 A usually shy Tree Fish (a type of rockfish) let me get several pictures.

 This site has great rock structure but is usually quite dark because of heavy kelp beds, but the plague of sea urchins have decimated the kelp.

 Greg with another ling cod.

 Greg headed for a few remaining strands of giant kelp and a school of blue rockfish.

 The remains of a kelp holdfast with the culprits, hordes of sea urchins.  We used to only see sea urchins hidden in crevices but now their numbers have exploded and have overwhelmed their predators, so far.