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
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