Two Dives at Erik's Pinnacle Sunday, September 25, 2016

I had two good dives on Erik's Pinnacle off Pacific Grove last Sunday.  This was my third trip on the Sanctuary dive boat.  They only take out six divers which I really like and they don't mind me diving solo.  We had highly variable visibility on these two dives.  There was sometimes a "surface" layer of algae bloom, very green to even brown at times extending from the surface down 15 to 20 ft.  A couple times the layer vanished, briefly...So lots of variability in light at the bottom on this warm, sunny day.  Water temperature at the bottom was a typical 51 degrees.  Visibility at the bottom ranged from 20 to 25 ft (they had reports of 70 ft the previous day!).  Erik's Pinnacle comes up from around 55 ft deep up to 14 ft from the surface.  Surrounding Erik's Pinnacle are other large rock structures.  The ones to the NW of the pinnacle have lots of Metridium white anemones.  There were several dead juvenile Mola Molas on the bottom, slaughtered and discarded by sea lions.  I saw a couple of healthy swimming juvenile mola molas but failed to get a focused picture of them...some day.  Lots of blue rockfish and several copper rockfish.  Several sheep crabs.  I was pleased to see increasing amounts of healthy giant kelp at the neighboring kelp bed.

     An amorous pair of Kelp Crabs.

                              Looking up at the top of Erik's Pinnacle being crested by the early morning sun.

                                          A pair of Copper Rockfish

                                Large Sheep Crab with Metridium Anemones.

                                                       Metridium Anemones

                                         Blue Striped Perch

                                         A plethora of blue rockfish

                                                       A growing frond of giant kelp at my safety stop.

To see more from these dives please go to:  https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMzZA8QAG5naqNI6hPoisWRBwAHE9wdgZnvXB9m

Dives at Ball Busters (II) and off Point Joe with the Sanctuary September 11, 2016

I made another trip on the Sanctuary dive boat out of Monterey last Sunday.  Conditions were very calm but our first dive was at Ball Busters because visibility had been far better at nearby Chase Reef the day before than it was in Carmel Bay.  Another reason they chose Ball Busters was because an instructor needed a deep dive to finish training his two advanced diver students.  We had a heavy marine layer and the top thirty feet was having a heavy plankton bloom with only 10 ft or so of visibility at the surface so it was very dark down at the 71-101 ft depths at Ball Busters.  Visibility at the bottom was around 20 ft.

 It was quite dark on Ball Busters so the Metridium anenomes really stand out, here with a vermilion rockfish.

                            The site is called "Ball Busters" for all the heavy weights found on the pinnacle, lost from fishing trawl nets.

                                  I put my hand on one of the weights for a size perspective.

                                        Here's my attempt at shooting small subjects with my Tokina 10-17 mm fisheye wide angle lens.  The painted greenling is about 3 inches long, the strawberry anemones (aka club anemones) are about 2 inches high.

                                 Copper Rockfish

                                     Vermilion Rockfish and Metridium anemones

                               I saw a few lingcod on the dive, never can resist taking their photos.  Note the black background at this depth.

  On this dive, at depths of 101 to 71 feet, it was a race to see if the cold through my compressed neoprene wetsuit or bottom time would chase me up first.  I was forced up the anchor line by my no decompression limits.  Note the green water looking up towards the surface from around 40 ft as I go to my 20 ft safety stop.  For more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNPFf_YRj01HtHbdDmJ-vXAj214iq5wRm3YWzqe

Our next dive was at a great site off Point Joe, the Sanctuary first ran in and topped off their fuel tank and then ran back out around Point Pinos to Point Joe, taking advantage of extremely calm conditions.  They took us to Point Joe because it was the best shot at better visibility which they knew I was really hoping for with my wide angle shooting. Visibility was about 25 ft at the bottom, so better than Ball Busters and the light much better.  The site has huge rock structures and had large schools of blue rockfish.  I also saw a California Sheepshead but unable to get close enough for a picture.

    Upon descending the anchor chain I found a plethora of blue rockfish at this site.  There is maybe a quarter of the normal kelp at Point Joe right now but it is definitely recovering from the hordes of sea urchins of last year.

                    A Yellow Edged Cadlina nudibranch with one of the still too numerous purple sea urchins.

                                    A White Spotted Rose Anemone

    The single most exciting thing about this dive, for me, were the large Olive Rockfish I saw.  The largest was at least 5 or 6 lbs and these were the largest Olive rockfish I've seen in at least 25 years.

                                          It looks like the olive rockfish are starting to recover from their decimated numbers of several years ago thanks to restricted rockfish quotas.

                                          I was pleased to see the start of a new kelpforest at this site.

   I managed to get a picture of this shy female rock greenling, only the second time I've seen this species though they are not rare....

For more from this dive, please go to:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMna6K1sDBcRKKw00uYSKKSN4bBc_sOnm6HgD-U