Two dives off Pescadero Point, Carmel Bay, October 1, 2014

Greg Hoberg and I made two dives off Pescadero Point this Wednesday.  There was a large 6 to 8 ft swell running but Pescadero Point was sheltered and we had 25 feet of visibility and 52 degree water.  We saw lots of nudibranchs of several species - Catalina Triopha, Horned nudibranch, Hilton's nudibranch, Hopkin's Rose nudibranch, Ohner's Nudibranch, and the ever common Sea Lemon Nudibranch.  We saw several cabezon, a couple of them guarding their eggs, and several lingcod.
To see all the pictures I posted from these dives, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6066110055453200305?authkey=CLjM-ZPL38aHXA

 Copper rockfish with an abalone peeking from its hideaway.

 Greg with a cabezon.

 Here is a clutch of cabezon eggs - there are thousands.  The male cabezon guards the eggs and returns to its guard position seconds after we disturb it.  This behavior makes cabezons sitting ducks for spear fishermen this time of year and of course if the male cabezon is killed small fish immediately devour all the eggs.

 Male cabezon next to his clutch of eggs.

 Ohdner's nudibranch.

 This string of drifting salps come to a gruesome end in the clutches of a hungry sea anemome.
 Hopkin's Rose Nudibranch, about 3 inches long.

 Greg getting a photo of a beat up jellyfish.

 Kelp rockfish, a yellow sea lemon nudibranch and an orange puff sponge.

Lots of sea urchins give us thinner kelp coverage this year.  The sea star wasting syndrome decimated large sea star populations which normally feed on small sea urchins.  Hopefully the sea otters we saw from our boat will soon decimate this sea urchin population.