Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of excellent sea conditions to take his Zodiac RIB to Carmel Bay for two dives yesterday. Soon after we started out we spotted hundreds of Risso's Dolphins off Lover's Point. The ride down was easy, it was even calmer than forecasted.
We crossed Carmel Bay to Monolobo hoping to find clear water and decided to dive there, one of our favorite sites. The kelp there is largely recovered, about 80% of normal. Unfortunately we only had about 15 ft of visibility and it was very dark at the bottom from the combination of a heavy marine layer reducing ambient light, poor visibility attenuating that light, and diving under a heavy, healthy, beautiful kelp canopy. Water temp was 50 degrees F.
As we descended we were sorry to see that the water was summertime green with only a slightest tinge of blue from upwelling from the Carmel Canyon nearby. I led the descent, in my dry suit, for my fourth day of drysuit diving, Greg followed to make sure I had no buoyancy problems. Ankle weights have been sufficient to make it easy to maintain my weight trim.
Monolobo has lots of beautiful hydro coral.
Kelp Rockfish in the very dark water.
Fish Eating Anemone
Vermilion Rockfish
Black Rockfish
There is no longer any plague of sea urchins at Monolobo, the remaining survivors are mostly tucked into crevices during the daylight hours where they are less vulnerable to predators like sea otters, California Sheephead, and Wolf Eels.
Greg with a nice sized lingcod, I managed to get a picture of him with it. Greg also saw another very large lingcod.
Monterey Dorid Nudibranch
Monterey Dorid Nudibranch orgy with freshly laid spirals of eggs.
Greg with a large, transparent "Whatsit" he spotted. I think it is a pelagic salp, this is the largest individual I've seen, ten inches or so in length.
Beautiful, we had a lot more light near the surface.
Greg's photo of me and the salp.
Below are some photos from our dive at Monolobo, for more please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xm6S1PQATpbrugEz5
Our second dive was at Cypress Point, another favorite dive site, only diveable under nice conditions with a small swell running. We had 15 to 20 ft of visibility with much better light at this dive since there is little kelp at the site.
Black and Yellow Rockfish
Filter feeding Sea Cucumber and still too many sea urchins
More amorous Monterey Dorid Nudibranchs
Greg with a shy curious sea lion in the background.
Below are some photos from our dive at Cypress Point, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Em2Q3zCsBbDg7cRt7
