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.