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.