Dives at Fire Rock and Aumentos February 17, 2018

Guy Foster and I had two good dives with the Sanctuary dive boat last Saturday.  We had fairly light seas and fairly light winds ahead of a strong cold front forecasted to sweep in the following morning.  On our trip down we saw several migrating Gray Whales.

Our first dive was at Fire Rock off Pescadero Point in Carmel Bay.  We had great visibility, 45 to 50 ft, and great light from cloudless skies.  The water was a chilly 49 degrees.  The kelp bed at Fire Rock is almost non existent right now from a combination of hordes of sea urchins and rough winter seas tearing what little was there away.  Below are some photos from our dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PgbwJX3m4CcRCCzC3

 

  Guy splashes in the clear blue water for our dive at Fire Rock.

                              Fire Rock has large ledges, here's Guy making his way along one.

A large sea lemon nudibranch, about five inches long.

                      Guy getting a shot, you can see that the light and visibility were pretty good.

See the large blue-green Cabezon?  She's lying just above the small green clump of algae in the foreground, her nose is just to the left and just below the purple sea urchins on the right of the picture.  Find her eye?  She was shy, just got this one photo.

                       Where you find Giant Green Anemones, it's usually turbulent water, but we had small swell running on Saturday.

                                       Guy getting set for a shot.

                              There were some small stands of Palm Kelp at the tops of the pinnacles at Fire Rock, but little surviving Giant or Bull Kelp.  Still way too many urchins.

 I found this huge (50 lbs, I'd guess) lingcod, well camouflaged, sitting on a ledge.  Can you spot it? Just to the right of center of the picture, the head at the top facing away.

              Guy maneuvering for a shot of the big lingcod.

                    Here's a closer picture of the big, very well camouflaged lingcod.  Center of picture, facing right, find the tail to the left of center.

Because of concerns that the wind would come up and the seas would build, Sanctuary went back to Monterey Bay for our second dive.  We anchored on Aumentos, which has really great rock structure but at the cost of exposure to boat traffic when on the surface and sometimes significant currents.  The water was quite green, surprisingly for this time of year, and full of Moon Jellies and Sea Nettles near the surface, but happily, the visibility was decent at the bottom (48 to 80 ft), about 25 ft of visibility.  Below are some photos from our dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/mKEvUHMmSjIYIFl02

                         Aumentos has large rock structures throughout the site.

                                                     White-Plumed Anemones aka Metridium, aka Plumrose

                    Guy with Moon Jelly and Sea Nettles

Fire Rock and off Frank Lloyd Wright House February 3, 2018

Finally, on the first Saturday of February, I got in my first two dives of the new year.  I took a trip on the Sanctuary to dive Carmel Bay, we had very calm conditions, sunny skies, and 50 ft of visibility!  On the way down, and back, we were entertained by several migrating Gray Whales and while moving between sites in Carmel Bay after our first dive we saw the whale watch fast catamaran boat Black Fin with a big pod of White Sided dolphins, leaping along on its bow wave and wake.

Below are some pictures from our first dive site "Fire Rock", for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/upNpUTsikLh5pqAF2

Sanctuary only takes out six divers, I splashed first, well ahead of the others and made my way on the bottom over to Fire Rock about 100 ft away, I had it all to myself for my entire dive..   I was first in and the last back out, though well chilled from the 50 degree water...  When I first reached the bottom I spotted this transparent "What's It", about 6 inches long, TBD, maybe.  Note the bare rocks, with sea urchins having devoured every scrap of kelp and other algae.  Not good.

I saw reasonable numbers of several types of sea stars like this Spiny Star.  Still way too many urchins of several types.

Great light, great visibility, no sea surge.  The best of Monterey and Carmel winter diving!

I found this large, almost black, Ling Cod, only the second time I remember seeing this color.

                                         Rainbow Star with a couple bat stars.  It's good to see rainbow stars reappearing after the sea star wasting plague.

                                  Nudibranch, either a Yellow edged Cadlina or Hudson's, between two orange puff sponges.

                       Blue Rockfish and some surviving strands of Palm Kelp...

                    I was saddened to see this Ochre Sea Star disintegrating from sea star wasting disease.

                      Beautiful Giant Green Anemone, they are found where the water is usually turbulent from sea surge.  It was nice to have an easy dive without sea surge!

                                  A healthy Ochre Sea Star (they come in several colors).

                                           Pretty female Kelp Greenling

Our second dive of the day was in 40 to 100 ft of water on huge rock ridges off the Frank Lloyd Wright House, 52 degree temp, 50 ft visibility.  Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dFqwPm09WbzOua5U2

               Rock ridges up to forty feet high, great visibility, great light, magic!

White Dendronotid nudibranch feeding on hydroids.  I've always found this nudibranch difficult to photo, I'm pleased with this photo, taken with my wide angle fisheye lens, the nudibranch is about four inches long.

                        Either a Sea Lemon or a Monterey Dorid Nudibranch with Strawberry Anemones.