Greg Hoberg and I got out for a second day in the row to dive. We had very good sea conditions for both the ride down to Carmel and the return. Water visibility was 15 ft, temperature was 50 degrees. Ghost Tree is just to the WNW of Pescadero Point. Normally this area is shrouded in Giant Kelp but right now the entire area is a sea urchin barrens. Almost zero vegetation to be seen. Also, and not coincidentally, there are almost no large sea stars in the area. Because I had anticipated very limited visibility based on our trip the day before I had decided to shoot with my 60 mm Canon lens instead of my usual wide angle.
Orange Cup Coral
Yellow Dorid Nudibranch
Baby Bat Star with my finger for scale...
Black and Yellow Rockfish
Coralline Sculpin
Sea Urchins mobbing and devouring the remains of the only Palm Kelp stalk I saw on the dive.....May this plague soon pass...
Tube Worm
Filter Feeding Acorn Barnacle
TBD Sea Anemone
Painted Greenling
To see more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://goo.gl/photos/R7oSBYJao15NCViJ6
After the dive Greg spotted a humpback about a mile offshore breaching. As we rode out through the SW chop for a closer look we saw at least two full breaches by the enormous mom and her calf breached at least 15 times, great fun. The action ended as we got close enough for pictures....
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