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.
No comments:
Post a Comment