Very enjoyable dive off Butterfly House, Carmel Bay August 29,2017

Greg Hoberg and I took his boat down to Carmel Bay in choppy seas for another very good dive yesterday.  We crossed Carmel Bay at its mouth and then headed east towards Monastery Beach up the Carmel Canyon branch of the greater Monterey Canyon.  This area frequently has whales and Risso's dolphins, the day before we had smelled the breath of a whale (Humpbacks don't floss) in the dense fog, never saw it though.  There was some scattered fog and a heavy marine layer but we could see well enough to watch for whales.  We weren't disappointed.  We soon saw at least six Humpbacks, most very near shore (it's deep right up to the beach at this end of the bay and at the terminus of Carmel Canyon).  We spotted one closer to us, headed our way, so Greg stopped the boat and we waited.  It was a huge adult Humpback, it had the largest girth I've ever seen a Humpback have, I suspect it was a very pregnant female.  She took a breath just about 20 ft from us and raised her fluke up to dive only 20 ft away, truly awesome.

Greg spotted anchovies down over 100 ft and we realized that the action was all down deep, we'd just see the Humpbacks make a couple lazy surface blows then dive.  So we decided to go make our first dive (we later decided to make it our only dive because the wind was coming up and we didn't want to get pounded going back to Monterey) off the Butterfly House.  We went in close to some wash rocks just offshore, we anchored in 45 ft of water, we were next to a pinnacle, we discovered, that came up to 20 ft.  It made a very interesting dive.  We had 30 to 40 ft of visibility, 52 degrees.  This area still has limited kelp compared to normal but it is definitely starting to come back.  Below are some pictures from our dive, for more please go to:
https://goo.gl/photos/uDMkXjAnwB98i5Fa6

                                  Butterfly House is named after its roof's shape in the center background.

                           There's still way too many sea urchins but the Bull, Giant, and Palm Kelp is starting to slowly recover.

                                       We had good light and good visibility, the kelp is mostly still a bit sparse but it was dense on top to the pinnacle we anchored next to.

                                   Tan and brown Sea Cucumber with a Leather Sea Star

This is a Rough Keyhole Limpet, it uses it's large light colored mantel, here completely covering its shell, to foil the attack of sea stars as it is doing here with a Spiny Sea Star.

                                Here the Rough Keyhole Limpet's mantle is not out as far since it is no longer threatened by a sea star, there is a smaller Rough Keyhole Limpet just below and to its right.

The pinnacle has large vertical walls dense with invertebrate life.

                                    Hilton's Nudibranch in a tough to photograph with my wide angle dome hole.

                                         Large Spiny Sea Star with my hand for scale.

                                Looking up a face of the Pinnacle, giant kelp bed grows from the top of it.

                                          Dark brown(ish) Lingcod

                                          Greg getting a Lingcod shot.

                                          Greg with Lingcod that has tired of our close attention.

                    We moved to the top of the Pinnacle to finish off our dive and make our safety stop.

Very Good Dives at Mono-lobo and south of Bird Rock August 28, 2017

Greg Hoberg and I had two very good dives today, the first was in Carmel Bay at Mono-lobo.  Though it was rougher than we'd hoped as well as foggy, we were rewarded with very clear (for around here at this time of year) visibility of around 45 ft.  Water temp was 51 degrees at the bottom.  We were amazed to see Mono-lobo's kelp bed back to nearly full size!  This is very good news and is a huge expansion since our last dive there on August 2nd.  As we approached Mono-lobo in the fog we also smelled the unmistakable breath of a whale but we never saw it.  Here are some photos from the dive, for more, please go to:
https://goo.gl/photos/FqfmuVTM8XgVYQvB6

 We knew the water color was excellent from the boat but with the limited light, in the fog, we didn't know how clear it would be until we splashed.  Here Greg is descending to the anchor to position it and its chain so that I will be able to pull it up after our dive.

                                         Olive Rockfish, I've been seeing a few more of these recently, very encouraging.  There used to be many.

    A beautiful trio of sea anemones

  A kelp rockfish and look at the kelp, beautiful, beautiful kelp!  The urchin plague is passing at last!

 Here you can see that we had excellent visibility!

It is wonderful to see Mono-lobo with a full giant kelp bed again, though it makes finding a place to anchor the boat a challenge.

A large lingcod perched on top of a pinnacle watching for his lunch, I happened to look up and spot him.

Beautiful opalescent nudibranch, not too bad of a shot given I was shooting with my wide angle lens.  About four inches long.

I'm pleased with this shot of a Painted Greenling, with the kelp spreading on the surface above.  Especially pleased because, at this point of the dive I was shivering non-stop!  Hot chocolate was waiting in thermoses in Greg's boat above...

A sculpin in front of a holdfast.  Again, not bad given I was shooting with my wide angle lens.

Sculpin, coralline, I think....

   Safety stop in wonderful, beautiful, Bull Kelp.  The kelp bed is back!


Our second dive was on our way back to Monterey, just to the north of Cypress point and just to the south of Bird Rock on the 17 mile drive in the community of Pebble Beach.  We had very good visibility, 35 ft, saw sea lions and harbor seals, and enjoyed the new kelp bed where we never saw one before.  Very different and interesting rock structure on the bottom.  Below are some photos from the dive, for more please go to:
https://goo.gl/photos/Dw3DTY75z3JspyQSA

    This was our first ever dive at this site, near shore about 1/2 mile south of Bird Rock, about 1/2 mile north of Cypress Point.  It has a mixture of rock ledges and sand.  We again had very good visibility and light.  A sand bottom gives a lot of reflected light.  Being shallower, about 40 ft, helps too, with light and with wetsuit insulation.  I wasn't shivering until the last ten minutes of this dive...

 We were quickly met by a pair of barking (yes, barking loudly, underwater!) sea lions.  They are fast a maneuverable and this was as close as I came to getting a shot.

                                         
                                    Beautiful Sea Anemone

                                         Need to look up what kind of "tube worm" these are, the dive site has many many colonies of these.

 Beautiful, beautiful kelp.  We don't remember this site ever having a kelp bed in the past.

                                Lots of Senoritas in this beautiful kelp bed.

Two Good Dives in Monterey Bay August 10, 2017

Last Thursday Greg Hoberg and I went diving from his RIB Zodiac inside Monterey Bay.  Though the swell was tiny there were small craft warnings for the afternoon and we decided not to risk getting beat up by the wind chop going down to Carmel Bay and back.  Greg had just picked up his new Panasonic camera and Nauticam UW case from Backscatter and was eager to start taking pictures from it.  Inside Monterey Bay there is currently a 15 to 25 ft thick upper layer of heavy plankton bloom which is chock full of stinging Purple Sea Nettle jellyfish.  Happily, we are covered head to toe in heavy wetsuits so we only suffered minor stings on our lips, forehead, and on my wrists when I pulled up the anchor after the first dive... Also fortunately, under the heavy armada of jellyfish and plankton the water is quite clear, easily 20 to 30 ft of visibility.  Water temp at the bottom for both dives was an average temp of 53 degrees.

Our first dive was at an area near Eric's Pinnacle called "Inner Chase Reef".  We selected the dive spot by anchoring near some still rare, but slowly recovering, Giant Kelp.  It seems the sea urchin hordes are gradually getting thinned by sea otters and by Spiny and Ochre Sea Stars.  Below are some pictures from this dive, more can be found at:
https://goo.gl/photos/eiHNjgzKdS1S2y3E8

As we started down, there was limited visibility and hordes of Purple Striped Sea Nettles.  I got stung on my forehead (only a flesh wound), Greg on his lips.

Happily, at the bottom, the visibility opened right up, making it easy to keep track of each other.  Greg got right to work with his new camera setup.

Several smallish Lingcod curiously watch as we moved around taking pictures.

There were lots of sad husks of dead Giant Kelp holdfasts scattered across the rocks, still too many sea urchins, still out in the open instead of only surviving when hidden in cracks as is normally the case.  But the growing Spiny Sea Stars are eating the sea urchins as are the Sea Otters.

Here a Spiny Sea Star has engulfed a sea urchin in order to devour it.  If you look closely at the arm on the right you can see a Painted Greenling comfortably parked.

Here's a zoomed in look at the Spiny Sea Star leg and the resting Painted Greenling.

 Black Eyed Goby rose off the bottom, perhaps to investigate his reflection on my wide angle camera dome.

                         Copper or possibly a Gopher Rockfish

                                       Olive Rockfish

                        Chestnut Cowry with its mantle fully out covering its shiny white and brown shell.

Greg taking photos of close White Metridium Sea Anemones.  They are probably well fed from thick plankton.  If you look above Greg towards the surface you can just make out the dense armada of Purple Striped Sea Nettles above us.

Yes, I would say there was a plethora of Purple Sea Nettles.  Blue Rockfish feed on them.

Count the Purple Striped Sea Nettles.  There were literally millions of them.

After our first dive we made a brief spin off shore a quarter mile and saw a Humpback whale.  Our second dive was just off the North tip of Lover's Point in Pacific Grove at an area we hadn't dived before.  Again we anchored near sparse but slowly recovering Giant Kelp.  Below are some photos from this dive, more can be seen at:
https://goo.gl/photos/S7i3CLAnR7TMYsjEA

I'm always glad to see abalone.  They are always back in cracks in Monterey because they are a Sea otter delicacy.

 Do you see it?  I wouldn't have either if it hadn't moved.  The well camouflaged decorator crab is right in the center of the picture.

It's easier to see the crab when it moves across some encrusting sponges.

Top, Spotted Rose Anemone, bottom, Green Anemone (not to be confused with a Giant Green Anemone found in turbulent rocky areas as opposed to calm areas like here).

                                  Snub Nose Sculpin up 1/3 from bottom of photo, in 1/3 from left.  About 3 inches long.

                               Black Eyed Goby and Decorator Crab

Red Rock crab getting defensive, possibly even crabby, at my close approach.

Greg getting macro shots of a small flatfish (flounder, sole, ...) with his new camera setup.

Here's my best shot, zoomed in from a photo with my wide angle lens, of Greg's four inch quarry.