Greg Hoberg and I took his dive boat with its outboard engine newly refreshed with new spark plugs down to the big washrock just past Cypress Point inside Carmel Bay. There was significant, growing wind and a small but steep westerly swell. Passing Point Joe on the way south we were pleased to see that the kelp beds there are starting to recover (as they are in Monterey Bay). We dived just ESE of the washrock which broke the swell (and gave us less distance to battle against growing chop in order to round Cypress Point to get back to Monterey Bay). We had beautiful blue water but our visibility varied from 40 ft to 5 ft because of clouds of semi-transparent salps and jellies in the water. Water temp was 50 degrees. Depths ranged from 50 ft to 25 ft. Below are some pictures from our dive, many more can be found at:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6294371481791767809?authkey=CJu7jeHf476cKw
Greg found a small octopus, the first one we have seen in awhile. Below and to the left of the sea anemone, above the sea urchin.
We had beautiful blue water with lots of salps and jellies sometimes blocking our vision, as in this picture of Greg about 15 ft away.
Here there is very good visibility.
Black and yellow rockfish in a colorful setting.
Greg found a sculpin and is shooting a video of it.
Here's the well camouflaged sculpin Greg spotted, can you see it? Immediately to the right of the sea urchin, it's eye is at the end of one of the spines.
When we surfaced from our dive, the wind had really come up (as forecast) so we beat our way back to Monterey Bay and dived on Erik's Pinnacle. Visibility was only 15 ft, green water, 50 degrees. Below are a few pictures from this dive, more are at:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6294372004229283985?authkey=CMWux5WT8-PCRQ
I took this picture of cone shell eggs, sure wish I had spotted the red sculpin next to the tube anemones and the strand of kelp at the time!
Metridium anemone
Blue lined Ocean Perch on the top of Erik's Pinnacle.
