Cypress Point, Inner Wash Rocks January 6, 2017

Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of the proverbial "calm before the storm" and snuck in a dive on Friday just ahead of a major Pacific Storm which is raining hard on our place in Pacific Grove as I write this.  We had very calm conditions so were able to comfortably dive the inner wash rocks at Cypress Point, a favorite dive site but only when the swell is small.  On the ride down and the ride back we saw humpback and gray whales, which have a pronounced V or heart shaped blow when viewed from the right angle.  We also heard some kind of marine mammal clicking to do echo location during our dive, a new sound for us, we were hoping to see whatever it was.....At the end of our dive after we got back into Greg's boat we saw Gray whales passing just outside the outer rock at Cypress Point, if we had dived the outer rock we may have gotten to see a Gray whale...

On our dive we were really pleased to see lots of large, healthy, Ocher and Spiny (and the usual Bat) stars.  It was great to see them back after the wasting disease.  We were also pleased to see, not coincidentally, greatly reduced numbers of sea urchins, and some new Palm Kelp growing.  On our dive we saw lingcod, cabezon, and rock fish.  We also saw a large group of Leafy Hornmouth snails laying eggs.  Below are some photos from our dive trip, if you'd like to see more, please go to:  https://goo.gl/photos/fG7Pmukv2DHTxBep8

        We weren't pleased to find a dead sea lion at the launch ramp as we started out trip, you can see the shark bite crescent....This contributed to my preferring to dive the inner wash rock at Cypress Point because the outer rock is really in deeper, exposed water with no giant kelp right now....but we probably missed seeing passing Gray Whales (and our maybe our mystery echo locator - they've been seeing Orcas frequently..) due to being inside the inner rocks..

  Greg gets set for a lingcod shot.  As you can see we had very good, about 40 ft visibility.  Moderate 51 degree temperature....moderate by local standards!

                     I had a big smile as I took a quick photo of this well fed Ocher Sea Star with a bat star.

                                        Black and Yellow Rock Fish

                                    Sea urchin horde is greatly diminished and the Palm Kelp is recovering.
                                     

Lots of big fat healthy sea stars, hurray!

Greg gets a shot of a group of Leafy Hornmouths laying eggs.

A large group of Leafy Hornmouth snails laying yellow eggs.

The roundish lumps in this picture are large acorn baranacles whose outer shells are buried by strawberry anemones.  If you look closely at centers on a couple of them you make out the shell of the barnacle.  There's a point to this, if you look 1/3 from bottom and 1/3 from right of photo you can even see the legs of one barnacle out catching plankton.  The numbers, density, and size of acorn barnacles are way up since the decimation of large sea stars by the wasting disease four years ago.

Theses are the fresh white skeletons remaining from Acorn Barnacles that have been munched by the beg fat Ocher Sea Stars that are back on the scene.  It's a rough neighborhood down there.

See it?  Greg takes a shot of a beautiful, well camouflaged Cabezon.

Cabezon do a great job of matching their colors to their surroundings.  His red stands out a bit due to my flash.  I should have also taken a natural color shot.  We scare about half the Cabezon we encounter because we blunder too close without seeing them.

My Twentyone Favorite UW Photos for 2016

Based on the latest local marine forecast here on December 27th, I've concluded that my 2016 diving season has come to an end.  I had quite a number of good "local" dives in Monterey and Carmel this year with Guy Foster and Greg Hoberg.  In June/July I had an outstanding dive trip, a trip I had wanted to take for over thirty years, to Cocos Island off Costa Rico on the Undersea Hunter with Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow.  In November I made a dive trip to the Channel Islands on the Vision with Richard Salas, Tom Campbell, and Beth Davidow.  Here are my twentyone (why twentyone you ask, good question) favorite uw pictures this year, favorite means just that as opposed to necessarily being what I think were my best pictures.  To see my file of 84 favorite dive photos from 2016 please go to: https://goo.gl/photos/8a5XkpYvTh3Mr9teA

As 2016 started the Monterey and Carmel kelp beds - giant, bull, and palm kelp - had been decimated by hordes of sea urchins following the demise of one of their major predators - sea stars - in 2013.  Happily as the year wore on many of the kelp beds, with the help of hungry sea otters, were coming back.

                          This is a very large, beautiful Fish-eating Anemone at Otter Cove.

                                          Tube anemone, Otter Cove, Pacific Grove

                                         Beautiful Cabezon, Mono-lobo, Carmel Bay

                                         Hydra coral forest, Carmel.

                                Brown Boobie at bait ball, Cocos Island

                               Dolphin and boobies, bait ball off Cocos Island

  The Three Amigos, Yellow Trumpetfish, Golden Snapper, White tipped Reef Shark, Cocos Island

    Scalloped Hammerhead, the number one subject at Cocos Island.  We saw hundreds!

    Scalloped Hammerhead, Cocos Island, approaching a cleaning station.

   A huge lurking Tiger Shark, Cocos Island.  We saw this shark, some think 14 ft long, others 18 ft, repeatedly on several days of our trip.  Beautiful, awesome.  There are fewer sea turtles around Cocos Island since the Tigers moved in about five years ago...

                                   Bacalao Grouper and Trumpet Fish, Cocos Island

                                Pelagic lobster, aka tuna crab, Lover's Point, Pacific Grove
Monterey Bay received several swarms of Pelagic lobsters this year, on one of those days, Guy Foster and I happened to be diving and got to take many pictures of them.

                     Vermilion Rockfish, Shale Reef, Monterey Bay

                        Chromodoris macfarlandi, first for me, Coastguard Breakwater, 10-4-16.

                               Octopus, Coast Guard Breakwater

                               Wooly Sculpin, Coast Guard Breakwater, Monterey

    Seascape with Garibaldi, Channel Islands with the Vision

                                Spanish Shawl, north coast Santa Cruz Island

    Eureka Oil Platform off LA, with the Vision

                                         California Sheephead, Channel Islands

Last three dives of six day Vision Channel Islands Trip 11-19-16

Saturday, November 19th was the last day of our six day trip on the Vision to the Channel Islands.  Our last day we did three dives off the north side of Santa Cruz Island in order to have a relatively short run back to Santa Barbara.  The first dive was on a pinnacle just offshore.  Below are some pictures from this dive, you can see more at:  https://goo.gl/photos/9jMETTiZKCkADBCR7

                                          Chestnut Cowry

  Spanish Shawl nudibranch, about 2 inches long, feeding on hydroids, surrounded by Strawberry Anemones.

Our second dive was in a tiny bay on the north side of Santa Cruz Island, below are a few pictures from this dive, to see more:  https://goo.gl/photos/X6MGSx99oB5YixFV6

                                         A lingcod gets tense at my close approach.  I left him in piece.

                                A large male California Sheephead

                  A Bluebanded Goby.  We don't have these as far north as Monterey (they stop at Morro Bay).  The largest bluebanded goby in a group becomes male from female (and they can go back and forth...).  I'm very pleased at this shot from our second dive since I was using my wide angle 10-17 mm Tokina Fisheye lens.

                                          Green Anemone, not to be confused with Giant Green Anemone...

 As professional underwater photographer and videographer Tom Campbell would say "Have a conversation with your subject"!  In this case, a juvenile Garibaldi.

                                                 Juvenile Garibaldi

                                Spanish Shawl nudibranch

    Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

                          A Senorita, earlier in the trip I got shots of these cleaning Blacksmiths.

Our final dive was outside Painted Cave.  Painted Cave is one of the largest natural sea caves in the world and since conditions were ideally calm, our captain took the Vision completely into the cave, maybe a couple of hundred feet!  The cave goes back something like 1200 ft!  Below are a few pictures from my final dive of the trip, to see more please go to:  https://goo.gl/photos/ND1REffWsMY5f5N56

    Spanish Shawl nudibranch feeding on hydroids.  Nudibranchs are short lived and seasonal, I saw many times more Spanish Shawl nudibranchs on this trip than in all my previous California diving, combined....So of course I kept taking their pictures, though I stubbornly refused to switch over to my 60 mm Canon Macro lens.

                                This is why I like to stick to my wide angle Tokina fisheye lens, because you never know.  I was buzzed without warning several times on this dive, this was the best sea lion shot I managed to get...
                             

                                                  A glowing yellowish Green Anemone.

                                A Crowned Sea Urchin

At the end of this final dive I rinsed off ASAP and crawled back into my bunk for the 2 hour or so trip back to Santa Barbara.  The nap equipped me for the 394 mile drive home that I started at 5:30 and ended at home at Midnight.  Great Trip!