Coastguard Breakwater, January 29,2015

Sometimes outboard motors can be recalcitrant.  Last week as we were returning from our dive trip down to Carmel Bay Greg's Evinrude died just as we approached the dock at the boat launch ramp.  Better a motor failure back at the dock than out off Cypress Point....We found that a fuse had burned out and replaced it and the motor power tilt drive worked again so we thought we were back in business.  But Thursday we tried to go out and we burned out a couple fuses again.  Greg and I did a shore dive at the Coastguard Breakwater and had a very good, long - 80 minutes- dive with 58 degree water and 20 ft of visibility and excellent light.  We saw lots of tube worms being preyed on by Rainbow Nudibranchs, we had a long encounter with a Giant Kelpfish and saw a variety of fish more common at the breakwater than at our usual dive sites.

 A pair of Rubberlip Seaperch.

 Greg getting a picture of an amorous pair of Rainbow Nudibranchs laying eggs.

 Rainbow Nudibranchs are usually easy to find preying on the huge population of tube anemones in the sand flat next to the breakwater in about 40 ft of water.  I want to video the nudibranch's attack on a tube anemone one of these days.

 A rainbow nudibranch atop the stalk of a tube anemone that has pulled down into its tube.

 Greg swimming past a Sea Hare sea slug in the left of the picture.  We've seen more of these in recent months than we've seen around here before, perhaps it is related to the unusually warm water - at 58 degrees about 6 degrees warmer than normal.

 While Greg was trying to get close enough to a Kelp Seabass to get a picture, the seabass was startled by a fish hidden in the kelp.  This was the first time I ever had an extended encounter with a Giant Kelpfish.  He was a little over a foot long.

 While maneuvering for a shot, Greg has herded the kelpfish over so that I had a good shot.

 It is a cool looking fish.

 A cabezon with Greg in the background.

A pair of Halfmoons, one of the fish I see at the breakwater but not so much anywhere else around here.
To see more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6110648203858494897?authkey=CMrH5qvdv636nQE