Excellent Dive at Pescadero Point's "Fire Rock" Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of a second day of calm seas to make a morning dive at Pescadero Point's "fire rock" - so named for the incredibly colorful invertebrate life that is so dense on the rocks there.  We were pleased to see that there is a dense kelp bed starting to regrow next to the wash rock - it is still only a small fraction of what is normally found at this site.  On the dive we still saw quite a number of urchins but we also saw many leather, spiny, and bat sea stars.  On the rocks we could see huge numbers of Acorn barnacles, frequently heavily encrusted by strawberry anemones but I also observed lots of fresh empty shells of Acorn barnacles, predated by sea stars.  Below are some pictures from our dive, to see more, please go to:  https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6312855374239788577?authkey=CLP-nYjYg_mVyAE

After our dive we cruised offshore of Point Pinos and were entertained by bow wave riding Pacific White Sided Dolphins and Humpback Whales.

                                A White Speckled Yellow Dorid Nudibranch love-fest.

                                   Black and Yellow Rockfish with Strawberry Anemones

                                 Greg gets a closeup

                                           Gopher Rockfish

   Cocherell's Dorid Nudibranch is about 3/4 of an inch long, spotted by Greg.

                                       Juvenile rockfish in the empty shell of a recently eaten Acorn Barnacle - the recovering sea star population will begin to thin out the barnacles.
 

                                White Speckled Yellow Dorid nudibranch with purple sea urchin

   A juvenile rockfish in the empty shell of a recently devoured acorn barnacle, next to a leather sea star that may have eaten it.

   Acorn Barnacles encrusted with Strawberry Anemones (in center of picture)

                               White Speckled Yellow Dorid nudibranch with a leather sea star

                               A leather sea star and a spiny sea star feasting on acorn barnacles.

                                A sculpin on the left center of the sea star, blends in well with the sea star.

  Can you spot the sculpin?  Look carefully at the right side of the strand of kelp.

Very Good Dives at Mono-lobo and Outer Otter Cove July 26, 2016

Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of small swells and light winds to take his boat to Carmel Bay and dive Mono-lobo Tuesday morning.  Conditions were very foggy as we left the Monterey Breakwater and then turned to smokey as we entered Carmel Bay headed for Mono-lobo.  The Sobranes fire is large and is just past Carmel Highlands, Point Lobos Marine Reserve was closed due to the fire.  Our visibility underwater was only slightly less than above it - 30 ft.  Water temperature was a chilly 49 degrees (52 at the surface).  On the cruise down to Carmel Bay we observed that kelp beds appear to be recovering from the urchin plague in more and more areas, around Point Joe in particular.  Mono-lobo's kelp beds seem to have passed their low point as well.

                                This lingcod came over to see what Greg was doing as he re-positioned our anchor to make sure it would both keep the boat there and be retrievable from the boat at the end of our dive.

                              Vermilion Rockfish are usually shy but this one posed nicely.

                                Greg in the dark with the Vermilion rockfish.  The fog and smoke together with the depth and being under the kelp canopy made this a dark dive.

                                A Red Rock Crab
To see more from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6312216885625212145?authkey=CM-U0a_hm-DYVA


Our second dive was back inside Monterey Bay off Otter Cove.  We had 30 ft visibility and 49 degree temperature.  Otter Cove kelp bed was reduced by the Otter Cove but has remained fairly intact and is starting to expand again.

                            It's good to see healthy Giant Kelp Holdfasts all over the site.

                                             Spiny (or Knobby) Sea Stars seem to be recovering from the sea star wasting disease that struck starting three years ago.

    Otter Cove has many beautiful sea anemones.

    A less common sea anemone, species TBD.

    A juvenile flounder or sole or sand dab.

For more from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6312217148673874833?authkey=CKXXg5iv5v_wjAE

Eighth, Best, and Final Day at Cocos Island and travel back to San Jose, Costa Rica July 7 (and 9th), 2016

7/7/2016

Final day of diving.  The island saved the best for last.  Our first dive of the day was a return to Dirty Rock – lots of hammerheads and I got my best shots of the trip.  The second dive was Outside Manuelita and we had lots of hammerheads, some close, and were visited again by a very large Tiger Shark which is clearly resident to the Manuelita Island neighborhood.  I finally got some decent shots of the Tiger.  Our final dive was Manuelita Coral Garden where Jerry Wyss and I parked and waited and were finally rewarded with a couple hammerhead visits and another visit by the same big (14 ft or so) Tiger Shark.

Dirty Rock - the last time there was the best

    At last, confident Scalloped Hammerheads.  They were focused on getting cleaned at cleaner stations.  Sharks love to approach from your blind side, this being an example.

      Beautiful Scalloped Hammerhead

    Scalloped Hammerhead with Ryder.

To see more pictures from this great dive at Dirty Rock please go to:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6307216680256110449?authkey=CIS975zy3La6YQ

Manuelita Outside, also the last time was the best!

    A large Dog Snapper and a Scalloped Hammerhead

   Scalloped Hammerhead with a White Tipped Reef Shark

                                  A huge, menacing Tiger Shark approaches - I called it 14 ft, others said 15, 16, 18 ft....

    What an amazing beauty.  No wonder no one sees Sea Turtles at Cocos anymore!

      The Tiger has stripes!

    Another beautiful Scalloped Hammerhead with Creole fish in the foreground.

To see still more shark pictures from this wonderful dive please go to:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6307317855018788593?authkey=CNmg0sGq8NaQGQ

Final Dive, Manuelita Island Coral Garden.  Jerry Wyss and I staked out an area and spent about 50 minutes there.  We were eventually rewarded with visits from a Hammerhead and our resident 14 ft Tiger Shark.

    The Tiger was nearly invisible until he got quite close.  I'm concerned that some diver will eventually get munched by this shark as it gets more and more accustomed to divers.

                                 Two trumpet fish and a grouper hunting together.

                                          Sea Hunter in Chatham Bay, we departed for Puntarena soon after finishing our final dive arriving there about 36 hours later.  The return trip was quite calm.  What a great boat, what a great crew, and what a great island!

    Beautiful colors at sunset in a cloudy sky as we head for Puntarena.

                      Rudy took us to "The Crocodile Bridge" on our drive back to San Jose.  Check out the butterflies.  I flew home the next day.

What a fantastic trip, it totally met and exceeded my expectations!