Two Very Good Dives with the Sanctuary. Butterfly House, Eric's Pinnacle July 29,2017

Guy Foster and I took a dive trip on the Sanctuary last Saturday.  There was a five foot swell running buy very light wind so Captain Mitch was willing to take us down to Carmel Bay.  Off Pt Joe we spotted something strange looking floating about a half mile offshore.  We went out to investigate and discovered, sadly, a dead humpback whale.  Probable killed by a ship strike.  After telling the Coast Guard about the hazard to navigation we went on down to Carmel Bay and dived off the Butterfly House.  We anchored maybe a couple hundred yards offshore about 150 feet off the edge of the Bull Kelp edging the shore.  We dived a beautiful ridge structure, 60 ft deep at the bottom, the ridge tops about 32 feet.  We had 25 - 30 ft of visibility and 51 degree water temp.  Here is the link to see my pictures from the dive plus four surface pictures from Guy Foster.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bvhL83fKlKkfYoAQ2

Here's some pictures from our trip and the dive off the Butterfly House:

 A sad, and smelly, sight, a dead Humpback about a half mile offshore.  It may end up on Asilomar Beach..  Photo by Guy Foster.

 Photo by Guy Foster

                                        Butterfly House, Carmel Bay    Photo by Guy Foster

    China Rockfish, frequently shy, but this guy was pretty cooperative.

                                                 China Rockfish

                                           A crabby crab, due to my strobe

                                                       Painted Greenling

                                         Black Rockfish, comfortably ensconced.

Our second dive was back in Monterey Bay on Pacific Grove's Eric's Pinnacle, one of the top sites in Monterey Bay.  We had less visibility on this dive, 15 ft at the surface with hordes of purple striped jellyfish and 20 ft at the bottom.  Here is the link to pictures from this dive below are a few I put in the blog.
Eric's Pinnacle:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FQEntxIdu98OTNLu1

                                          Brown Cup Coral, about 3/4 inches across

                                          Juvenile Gopher Rockfish, about 3 inches long

                                          Chiton

                                          Bluering Topsnail and Painted Greenling

                                          Tough neighborhood, larger snail attacking small black one to its left

                                                  Sculpin, who knows what kind...

                                          Bluering Topsnail and Strawberry Anemones

Surfacing through Jellyfish

                                          Back to the Sanctuary, photo by Guy Foster