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.
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