Excellent Dive at Mono-lobo, Carmel Bay September 28,2017

Greg Hoberg and I had an excellent dive on Mono-lobo last Thursday.  We had very calm conditions so we were able to speed down to Cypress Point at the north end of Carmel Bay.  At Cypress Point we spotted a very large pod of Risso's dolphins.  We proceeded to the Pinnacles and were pleased to see the Bull Kelp bed there continues to recover though there still is a notable dearth Giant Kelp.  The surface visibility was still pretty limited so we went on towards Mono-lobo, on the way we saw two or three Humpbacks.  We found the surface to be noticeably clearer at Mono-lobo so anchored at the outer edge of the rapidly recovering Giant Kelp and Bull Kelp bed.  The overall bed is now about 2/3rds of normal size.  When we descended we found a murky, plankton rich layer down about 10 ft extending down to about 35 ft, then, fortunately it cleared up again, we had 20 to 25 ft of visibility at the bottom (65 ft).  We were next to a nice wall and spent our entire dive going back and forth and up and down an area about 60 ft long by 25 ft high.  I was pleased to see that the remaining urchins were tucked back in crevices which is normally the case when we aren't under urchin plague conditions.  Hence the recovering kelp.  Bottom temp was 52 degrees but we still got cold due to how little swimming we did.  We had lots of good subjects on the rich edge of the kelp bed including a really cool red Kelpfish (aka Kelp Blenny) about four inches long, a beautiful Horned Nudibranch (aka Opalescent Nudibranch) Hemissenda Crassicornis, and a very patient Cabezon along with the usual rockfish.  When we surfaced we found that the wind and sea chop were increasing rapidly so we headed back to Monterey Bay (along the way it was good to see that Bull Kelp is finally coming back off Point Joe but no sign of Giant Kelp there yet).  We decided the water was too brown and rather than hope that it opened up down below we called it a day.  As we passed Hopkin's Marine Lab a Humpback made a very impressive tail throw quite near us, we had no idea they could put so much of the back of their body up out of the water!

Below are some pictures from the dive, for more please go to: 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rvmo482jQb19RVfy1

A Blackeyed Goby perched on a rock above an Orange Sea Cucumber and below a White spotted Rose anemone.

Dense invertebrate life, including a sea urchin in a crevice where it belongs during daylight, with a juvenile rockfish.

 Here are several pictures I took of a pretty red Kelpfish (aka Kelp Blenny), could be a spotted kelpfish or a crevice kelpfish.  First time I've seen and photoed a red one, I believe.  It's about four inches long.  I'm quite pleased with the pictures since I was shooting with my wide angle Tokina fisheye 10-17 mm lens.  f18, ISO 200, TTL on my strobe, 1/125 sec.

                            Juvenile Rockfish with sea anemone tentacles

                                          Juvenile Rockfish with Strawberry Anemones, black sea urchin, and orange cup corals.

                                          Gopher Rockfish with White Spotted Rose Anemone and pink Hydrocoral.

    Horned Nudibranch aka Opalescent Nudibranch, Hemissenda Crassicornis, about four inches long.

 

Greg getting pictures of the nudibranch.  Note the green water, hopefully we'll get more blue clear water soon as the days keep getting shorter and the nights longer to reduce the plankton bloom.

      A well camouflaged Coralline Sculpin, about four inches long, I only spotted him because he moved!  Again, not bad, given that I'm shooting with my wide angle lens.

                                   Greg getting Cabezon closeups!

Diving this coming Saturday, Oct 7 with Guy Foster on the Sanctuary.

Good dives on Erik's Pinnacle and the Shale Reef with Sanctuary September 23, 2017

I had two good dives with the Sanctuary dive boat out of Monterey last Saturday.  When the morning started winds were calm and so were the seas with a average swell running, but shrinking.  However, though early conditions were good the marine forecast was for small craft warnings in the afternoon with west winds of 15 to 25 knots.  I was hoping since it was calm at departure time that Sanctuary would take us to Carmel Bay for our first dive but the captain, Mitch, decided to avoid a likely rough return by staying inside Monterey Bay.  While leaving the harbor with six paying divers (one, visiting from the Netherlands paid Paula, our dive master, for two guided tour dives), the water was jam packed with millions of Yellow purple striped sea nettle jellyfish.  The most I've ever seen by a long shot.  There must have been an average of 20 sea nettles per cubic foot of water!  Fortunately, when we got to our dive site, Erik's Pinnacle, there were only the normal seasonal scattering of sea nettles on the incoming tide.  Visibility at the surface, which was very green to brown with algae/plankton was only 6 to 8 ft but down about 15 to 20 feet the visibility opened up to 25 ft or so.  Water temp at the bottom was a normal seasonal 51 degrees.  Below are some photos from this dive, to see more, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/NJwS5vBlyYoXJVSH2

Visibility at the bottom, 60 ft, at Erik's Pinnacle was a decent 25 ft.

A tube anemone with a couple of (the still too many) sea urchins still limiting kelp bed growth.

                                     A large Masking Crab

                                         A startled Decorator Crab

                                          Copper Rockfish

                          A Fish Eating Anemone on one of the large rocks scattered near Erik's Pinnacle.

                                         Whitespotted Rose Anemone

 Looking up Erik's Pinnacle, the water got greener with more algae and plankton as you approached the top of Erik's Pinnacle at about 20 ft (good place for a safety stop with some Giant Kelp re-established on it).

I spotted a Lingcod on my way up the pinnacle.

Morgan, one of the other divers on the trip, getting some shots on the pinnacle

I spotted a Snubnose Sculpin in amongst some large Acorn Barnacles.  See him?

Not bad for shooting with my wide angle lens...

 It's hard to make out but here is a large mussel on Erik's Pinnacle.  You rarely if ever saw these at diving depths before the sea star wasting disease decimated the populations of Ochre and Spiny Sea Stars.

I shot some Yellow Purple Striped Sea Nettles while on my safety stop.

Our second dive site, which we went to after dropping off a couple very sea sick divers back at Monterey Harbor, was another favorite for me, the Shale Reef, about 300 yards or so off Del Monte Beach (I've done this once from shore but won't do it from shore again until the next time I'm 19...Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment...).  Again, the water was murky brownish green with algae and plankton bloom due to consecutive sunny days without fog but, fortunately, it opened up to 20 to 25 ft of visibility once you got down about 20 ft.  Below are some pictures from this dive, for more please go to: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3uS49xgA4X0DaxY52

One of the first things I spotted when I swam from the anchor over to the shale reef was this desperate young (only three inches across) abalone which had been force to leave its protective crevasse in order to rome the rocks trying to find enough plant life to eat because of hordes of ravenous sea urchins.  It was surrounded by sea urchins and really struggling.  I intervened by removing the sea urchins.

                                If you look closely you can see some Coonstripe Shrimp.

A Bluebanded Ronquil, about five inches long, only the second or third time I've photoed this fish.

 The Shale Reef is on a different geologic plate than the rest of the Monterey peninsula.  The shale reef is sandstone or limestone instead of the granite found on all our other local dive sites.  The shale ledges remind me of the limestone ledges I dived when growing up in Dunedin, Florida.

I can never resist taking pictures of Vermilion Rockfish.

As I swam along the reef I spotted a Cabezon.  See it?

Ok, I'm proud of this despite the backscatter from having my strobe poorly positioned.  A Vermilion Rockfish and a Cabezon in the same photo.

                                 Sand-Rose Anemone

                                           A burrowing clam, I think a Wart-Neck Piddock

                   Another burrowing clam, a Scaleside Piddock

                                        Hope to do some more dives on the Shale Reef, love it.

Whale watching and three dives with the Silver Prince September 9, 2017

Last Saturday I did an all day, three tank dive trip on the Silver Prince.  We had very calm seas and lots of entertainment from feeding Humpback whales during our trip down to Carmel Bay, while we were anchored for our first two dives on the Outer Pinnacles and Horseshoe Reef, and during our trip back to Monterey Bay for our final dive at Erik's reef.  I took a few surface shots with my iPhone both before boarding Silver Prince and during the trip down.  Below are a couple shots, more can be seen at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nwT2KUEZRyqy5z5E2

 This is a view of the entrance to the inner part of Monterey Harbor, with a departing whale watching boat in the foreground.  Silver Prince's departure time for this trip was 9 am so I had time to walk around a take a few pictures before suiting up and boarding.

 Monterey Commercial Fishing dock - you can also directly buy fish directly from the fish distribution company on this dock.

Here's the "Coast Guard Breakwater" a popular, easy, shore dive site.  Always lots of sea lions.  A stand up paddleboarder was attacked by a white shark right off this a few months ago, but he was uninjured though his board got chewed on!  We heard about another diver that recently saw a white shark go by while diving here, no problem.  I consider it a likely white shark stomping ground because of all the sea lions.  Every now and then we find a dead or injured sea lion from shark attack here...

    The Monterey Bay Aquarium is just to left of center in this picture, the Hopkins Marine Laboratory is just to the right of the beach you can see in the background.

              Rounding Point Pinos, headed for Carmel Bay, very calm conditions, heavy marine layer.

My iphone is hopeless with shutter delay and poor zoom capability, but I did manage to catch one Humpback back of the several we saw feeding on anchovies near Cypress Point.  Lots of Humpback action on the trip down and back, and a couple great Humpback breaches to entertain us between dives while we were on the Outer Pinnacles and Horseshoe Reef in Carmel Bay.

Rounding Cypress Point, entering Carmel Bay.  When we have exceptionally calm conditions, Greg and I dive the outer wash rock and inner pair of wash rocks here, can be a great couple of dives.

Our first dive was on the Outer Pinnacles.  There was a small amount of kelp - maybe 10 % of normal but at least it is starting to recover from the urchin plague that followed the sea star wasting plague in 2013.  It is a deep site, my dive was from 68 to 95 ft, would have been easier to go much deeper and get much colder!  The surface 20 ft had a heavy plankton bloom with 10 ft of visibility but it opened up to 30 ft of visibility down below, but was dark due to the plankton layer above.  Very good dive, I'd enjoy it more with a dry suit...53 degrees at the bottom.  Below are some shots from the dive, you can see more at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cLUxDj2dhs1KyQZU2

 I encountered an inquisitive China Rockfish on this dive, I usually find them quite shy, so this was fun.  I suspect diving by myself helped with this...

Yes, I would definitely say that there was a plethora of Blue Rockfish on this site!

    Snubnose Sculpin with a large Red Sea Urchin (still way too many sea urchins on this site).

                                    Copper Rockfish with a sample of the rich invertebrate life on this site.

The Pinnacles have beautiful colonies of Hydro Coral, look at the colors!

                               I encountered one beautiful Lingcod on this dive.

                     I was very pleased to see a number of healthy, large spiny sea stars, here's one with my hand for scale.

Our second dive after a 60 minute surface interval (with hot cocoa and warm chicken noodle soup) was slightly shallower, I dived 64 to 74 ft.  Horseshoe Reef is a new site to me though it may be near another deep dive site Greg and I dived a couple of years ago.  Below are some shots from the dive, for more please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/oxkCRxTPjnPijHZ72

                                          Olive Rockfish

                 Another cooperative China Rockfish.  This site has too many urchins, still, as well.

Horseshoe Reef has rich invertebrate sealife and this well camouflaged Cabezon.  You see it, right?

   I obviously love photographing Cabezon, love this shot with hydro coral.

The plankton layer where I did my safety stop, very important after two long, deep, dives, had Yellow Purple Striped Sea Nettles busily feeding on the plankton.

Silver Prince served us sandwiches and chips for lunch and then they moved to Monterey Bay for our final dive because the wind was starting to come up.  We had two full Humpback breaches and lots of Humpback feeding action as we rounded Cypress Point.  Erik's Reef is the name Silver Prince gives for outer Otter Cove adjacent to Erik's Pinnacle.  The site has large rocks and is an excellent dive.  Unfortunately there was a heavy plankton bloom in the top 30 ft so the visibility was only decent after I swam out from 30 ft of depth to 45 to 55 ft of depth, where the rock structure is the best anyway.  Below are some shots from this dive, you can see more at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FJRCW4aQqVx1qoWj2

 A pair of yellow dorid nudibranchs with the circular egg mass they've laid.

                  A Coralline Sculpin on a yellow puff sponge

                 Sea Lemon Nudibranch with sea urchins, still too many of them....

 More Sea Nettles for my last safety stop of the day.