Good Dives at Monolobo and Fire Rock June 18, 2020

Hallelujah!  I finally got out for a day of diving the day after my 67th birthday!  Greg Hoberg and I had been set to go diving in March but the day before we were going Santa Clara County put our a shelter in place order for the COVID-19 pandemic.  Three months later, we decided to go out again, the forecast was reasonable and sea conditions were ok so we headed for Carmel Bay.  On the way out of Monterey Bay Greg spotted a huge Mola Mola as we passed it.  We circled back and it stayed up for us to make a close pass.  It was at least 5 ft long and 5 ft high!  The water in Monterey Bay was brown so we headed on for Carmel Bay.  The water color improved each mile we went south.  As we rounded Cypress Point to enter Carmel Bay the water turned blue.  The wind was from an unusual direction, the SW, and we decided to press on to Monolobo knowing the wind would be at our backs for the long ride back to Monterey Harbor.  When we arrived at Monolobo we could see down about 30 ft from the boat so we anchored for our first dive.

    We went down the anchor line as we always do to start our dive.  The hope is to have the anchor set to keep the boat in place but also to be easy to retrieve.  I was pleased that we were greeted by one of my favorite rockfish, a Vermilion.

    Monolobo%  has a series of walls and canyons and, happily, the kelp bed is back to about 75% of normal.

     The density and color of the invertebrate life is amazing.  The water was very chilly, 46 degrees.

     There are a few Metridium anemones at Monolobo.

                            Greg with Metridium.

     Monolobo is magical when you've got visibility and light!

Our next dive was at the North, the opposite end of Carmel Bay, at Fire Rock, a large wash rock off Pescadero Point.

  A large decorator crab.

   I spotted this Painted Greenling sheltering in a Rock Scallop shell.

    Greg found a well hidden Cabezon, you can just see it about a foot in front of his camera lens.

     Here's a shot of the well camouflaged Cabezon.

    Here the Cabezon's face is well lit.

    There are still too many urchins so too little kelp.  I got this shot of a large Spiny Sea Star eating a sea urchin.  If you look closely you can just make out some urchin spines between the sea star's legs. Eat up Mr. Sea Star!

A great kickoff to my 53rd year of scuba diving!

Favorite Cabezon shots

I usually just do my diving blog on individual dives or diving days but, in part due to frustration on not getting to dive because of prolonged bad conditions overlapping with days when I can go, then, a "Ray of Hope" Manta Ray tagging expedition in the Andaman Sea on the Diva Andaman that I should be in the middle of right now, due to the coronavirus pandemic, then the effective closure of my local diving just as Greg and I were about to have two good days of diving, also due to "stay at home" orders due to the pandemic,   I've decided to do a diving blog on one of my favorite California uw photo subjects, the cabezon.

Cabezon are the largest species of sculpin and are my favorite fish subject here in California.  Cabezon, incidentally, is Spanish for "bigheaded". Cabezon grow to around 30 inches in length and around 25 lbs.  The brownish/reddish Cabezons are males, the bluish greenish ones are female. Cabezon are masters of camouflage, they are excellent at shifting their color patterns to match the bottom wherever they are parked.  All too often, your first clue that you've found a cabezon is when it explodes off the bottom and disappears from you or your buddy nearly blundering into it.  Below are some of my favorite cabezon photos, to see more you can go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LAPB7QbU7dz8sgCu8

 Here's a cabezon sitting in coralline algae.  Would you spot it in a glance if I hadn't told you he was there?

    Here I've zoomed in on the cabezon in the picture.  Look at how well his color pattern matches the coralline algae he is sitting in!

    Here's another cabezon matching the colorful bottom it is sitting on, at Wyckoff Ledge, off San Miguel Island, Channel Islands.    Note, he was harder to spot than he looks here, because he is illuminated by the flash of my strobe for this photo.

Here's a cabezon matching his pattern to a different range of colors since he is sitting near hydro coral.  

Greg and I always watch for cabezon and when we manage to spot one before we startle it we try to carefully move around and get pictures of it with one of us.  Below is one that has "flushed" due to my close approach.  It's a great display of its huge pectoral fins.

In the late Fall and Winter Cabezon reproduce, the female lays a large mass of eggs, the male fertilizes them, then the female goes on her way while the male remains to protect them.  Below is a picture of Greg with a male cabezon guarding its eggs, the large dark mass on the bottom, just below and to the left of the fish.

                 Are you a science fiction fan?  Cabezon faces always remind me of Dominar Rygel XVI from "Farscape": https://g.co/kgs/JSzgfD.  Compare to the face shot below.

    Here's another male cabezon perched right on top of the eggs he is guarding.  This was on a shore dive in Otter Cove.

    Here's Greg with another male cabezon guarding his eggs.  Male cabezon are sitting ducks for spear fishermen when they are guarding their eggs.  Even if startled, they will simply circle back to their eggs.

    Here's a big beautiful blue-green female cabezon.  Look at her huge pectoral fin.

    Cabezon love to inhabit the cross bars on offshore oil rigs.  Below 50 ft oil rigs let marine growth accumulate on the rig since it does not add significantly to forces on the rig from large ocean swells. This oil rig is off Long Beach.

     Greg Hoberg with a cabezon on the Pinnacles, Carmel Bay.

     Greg took this picture of me with my favorite California fish.

Good Dives with Beachhopper II on Metridium Mountain and Aquarium March 7, 2020

Guy Foster and I had two good dives with Beachhopper II last Saturday.  Our first dive was on Metridium Mountain which is very well named.  Its a big site with depths of 45 to 70 ft.  We had visibility around 20 to 25 ft at the bottom, less at the surface.  There was an abundance of Purple Striped Sea Nettles.  Below on a few pictures from this dive, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3b2GM2ruAP2Q2CeP8

There were lots of Purple Striped Sea Nettles near the surface and in mid-water but few down at the bottom.

                               Metridium everywhere, aka Plumrose Anemones

                                Treefish

                                               Guy getting some shots.

                                Lingcod, it was in a protected area.

                               Up the anchor line for a 20 ft safety stop

     Sea Nettles provided entertainment while making safety stop, you can just see BeachHopper's shadow 20 ft above.

Our second dive was off the Monterey Aquarium, just East of its intake pipes.  We had some Giant Kelp on this dive, good to see.  I was visited by perhaps the largest sea otter ever on this dive, thought it was a Harbor Sea initially but realized it color and motion were wrong.  They are shy around scuba and I failed to get a decent photo of it...

                                 Female California Sheephead, there are more of these in Monterey than there used to be as fish shift up the coast with global warming.

                                Olive Rockfish

                                Aquarium's intake pipes

Two good dives with Beachhopper II on Hopkin's Deep Reef and McAbee Pinnacle 2/8/2020

I finally got out for my first two dives of the year with Guy Foster and his daughter Tessa last Saturday on Beachhopper II.  Our first dive was the deep reef off Hopkin's Marine Reserve, the depth ranged from 70 to 85 ft.  The water was pretty green at the surface with about 15 ft of visibility but opened up nicely as we descended giving us 40 ft of visibility as we approached the bottom.  I saw the two largest California Sheephead I've ever seen in Monterey but didn't get close enough for good photos.  Below are some photos from the dive, to see the rest, go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DK1R1tQ4RPPw7bnz9

 I shot this photo of Beachhopper II as we were about to start our dive off Hopkin's. 

               Guy and Tessa descending through the green water as we started our dive, fortunately, it opened up nicely as we got deeper.

 This site has lots of Metridium, aka Plumrose Anemones

Sheep Crab, aka Spider Crab, about 1.5 ft across.

One of the two large male California Sheephead I saw on this dive.

I followed Guy and Tessa back up the anchor line for a safety stop to end the dive.


Our second dive was nearly back to the Monterey Harbor's entrance, off McAbee Beach, a site called McAbee Pinnacle.  Lots of fish on this site.  I saw more California Sheephead, females, than I've ever seen in Monterey on any day of diving.  I also saw two of the largest Calico (aka Kelp) Bass I've ever seen this far north, they were around 8 lbs.  Visibility on this dive was around 20 ft, water temp was 51 degrees. Below are some photos from this dive, to see more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oMtCc8PyLoGRJJVA8

Black and Yellow Rockfish and a White Spotted Rose Anemone

A Spiny Sea Star in the process of devouring a large Acorn Barnacle

                                Olive Rockfish

     Female California Sheephead

August, 2016 Upwellings, explosion in krill, and lots of whales!

After quite a period of strong winds from the Northwest, a few days ago winds dropped off and became more variable.  The result is the end of the strong upwelling caused by the winds which has produced an explosion in krill and Humpback, Blue, and Fin whales feeding on them in Monterey Bay near the canyon.