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