Monolobo Friday, November 13, 2020

 Greg Hoberg and I caught a very calm day and took his boat down to Monolobo in Carmel Bay.  We saw Risso's dolphins over the Carmel trench as we crossed the Bay to Monolobo.  After our dive, we spent some time near them with Greg's boat and were rewarded with some nice viewing of a juvenile albino Risso's that the whale watch vessels have been showing pictures of for some time.  Below are some photos from our dive, to see the rest, please go to:

 https://photos.app.goo.gl/oEwzNGvYNT1Qmi8g8  

We had an average of about 35 ft of visibility, water temperature at depth was 49 degrees.  My drysuit zipper, despite lots of attention, leaked again.  I'm buying a new drysuit, I got this one very cheap and it was manufactured in 2006 and I've decided not to invest $638 to replace its leaky zippers...We saw one ling cod and one Cabezon, still much less than usual, I'm hoping they are just late coming into the shallows where we dive this year.  We were visited by curious sea lions a couple times but the visits were sudden and quick so I didn't get any really good photos but did get a couple ok ones.

Monolobo has great rock structure, mini-walls, and canyons, it is a spectacular dive site, especially now that its kelp forest has largely regrown.

    Greg with a Treefish rockfish.

    A couple of sea lions buzzing us from above.

       Gopher Rockfish

                        I think this Vermilion Rockfish roams this huge site and just visits us during our dives.

     Olive Rockfish

Three more visiting sea  lions.

Good dive at Monolobo November 2, 2020

 Greg Hoberg and I took his boat down to Carmel Bay on Monday through confused seas that were rougher than we expected, though not at all hazardous.  Thankfully the small but very long period westerly swell did not produce much surge for our dive.  We checked out the Pinnacles and Pescadero Pt but weren't impressed by the surface water clarity so we went on across the Bay to Monolobo.  The visibility was better there, during the dive it varied from at least 35 ft to 25 ft, water temp at 65 ft was 52,.  As we crossed the Carmel Trench on the way to Monolobo we saw a pod of Risso's dolphins. Lots of rockfish, only a single Kelp Greenling, not a single ling cod or Cabezon, very strange and a bit worrisome Below are some pictures from our dive, for more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7ypXaYcjAbBzXWMAA 

    Lone Vermilion Rockfish, we think this part of this site is his or her territory.

                                         I obviously can't resist shooting the Vermilion Rockfish especially if there aren't any Lingcod or Cabezon to be found.

                                  Gopher Rockfish

  Juvenile California Sheepshead