Very good dive at Pescadero Point February 13, 2017

Greg Hoberg and I managed to squeeze in another dive before yet another series of Pacific Storms start coming in two days from now.  Sea conditions were a bit rougher and winds came up more than forecast but overall it was a good outing with 30 to 40 ft of visibility at Pescadero Point, which was where we dived because the swell was larger than expected.  On the way down we saw a couple lone Gray Whales headed south then, shortly after rounding Cypress Point we came upon a tight group of four traveling together.  Fun.

Pescadero Point has no giant kelp right now, just too many sea urchins, still, though the sea stars are now starting to recover.  Water temperature was an average 51 degrees.  We only made one dive which was just as well because the wind was really whipping up when we surfaced, but the ride back wasn't terrible.

We had Ling Cod and Cabezon and good light thanks to visibility, clear sky, and lack, sadly, of giant kelp.  Below are some pictures, for more please go to:  https://goo.gl/photos/TfdMnkmvDgpDjPFo7

                                   Red Rock Crab

                   Greg gets a Ling Cod close-up

     I'm really pleased with this shot of a large lingcod with Greg in the background.

                               Greg gets a lingcod close-up

This was the third Cabezon I saw on the dive.  I managed to spot this one before I blundered too close and scaring him before I got a shot, like the first two.  He stands out a lot better with flash than in natural light.  I need to remember to get pictures both ways to really show off his camouflage capability better.

                                Greg with Cabezon, he was patient with us.

   We finally exhauste the Cabezon's patience!

Long, fun, dive at Otter Cove February 2, 2017

Yesterday I made a solo dive at Otter Cove in Pacific Grove to catch a brief calm period before the arrival of yet another winter storm that evening.  It was quite calm and I had 25 -35 ft of visibility and 52 degree water temperature, mostly scattered clouds with brief bits of sun.

  I was really pleased to see very few sea urchins and the ones I did see were huddled in crevices, so getting back to normal with sea otters munching the sizeable ones and spiny sea stars getting the little ones.  Still no signs of sunflower stars, haven't seen one in over three years since the wasting disease came through, hope they come back....I did see spiny sea stars, bat stars, and leather stars.  There are a lot more large acorn barnacles on the rocks than we used to see and I wonder how long they will last with the recovery of spiny sea stars.  I'm starting to see more and more empty acorn barnacle shells.

I found two separate male Cabezon guarding their mate's eggs, always fun to photo. was a very long dive with my 100 cu foot tank and a maximum depth of 45 ft.  I forgot to look at my total dive time on my dive computer (I keep it and most of my gear at our place in Pacific Grove) but the time that elapsed from my first photo to my last was 90 minutes!  No wonder my fingers were getting so cold I was starting to have trouble using my camera.  Once I got ashore and climbed up the flights of stairs to my car, I turned to see a Gray whale coming through right where I'd been 20 minutes earlier....oh well, some day.

                   Encountered one sea hare, this may be one of my favorite pictures I've taken of them.

                             Large acorn barnacles with an approaching spiny sea star

                                        Empty acorn barnacle shells, probably visited by a spiny sea star, for dinner..

                Otter Cove is a very reliable place to find beautiful sea anemones of several types.

                                    A Hairy Hermit Crab in a Kellet's whelk shell.

                                          Tube anemone

                                         Fish Eating Anemone with a bat star

                              Cabezon have an excellent ability to camouflage themselves, they really match the color and patterns in their surrondings to an amazing degree, I scare about two for every one I spot and carefully approach to photo.  You can easily see this one, right.  It stands out a little thanks to my flash (need to take one with and without flash!).  About a third up, in middle of photo, below notch between the rocks...

                                         Here he is swimming.  When they are guarding eggs they circle right back so you get to take a couple more pictures.

                         Male Cabezon protect the fertilized eggs until they hatch.  Here they are the mass in the center of the picture.

                                        Cabezon back on guard, I left him in peace at this point.

  Here's a second Cabezon guarding his mate's eggs (immediately under him), I left him happily on guard.

To see more from this dive please go to: https://goo.gl/photos/zhnCbYj3r6ceDNWk7

I only had one dive in January and I've started off the first day in February with a dive, here's hoping I get in some more winter dives this month, though there's a series of storms coming in for the next several days....