Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of a short break in large swell conditions to dive this Thursday. Sea conditions were fine for diving inside Carmel Bay and for making the boat run to Carmel from the Monterey Breakwater boat launch where we start. We've been noting the rapid decline in kelp beds due to the combination of exploding populations in sea urchins following the sea star wasting virus outbreak and the large rough seas which pull off weakened stands of Giant and Bull Kelp. For the first time ever we were able to cruise right across the rocky shallows of Chase reef to round Point Pinos. Normally Chase Reef has a huge, dense, kelp bed - even after being thinned by winter storms. In crossing Chase Reef we did not see a single frond of kelp! We only saw a couple stands of kelp after rounding Pt Pinos and then we cut right across near Pt Joe, also usually covered by extensive kelp which we have to pick our way through or go around. Pt Joe had almost no kelp either. We decided to dive the Pinnacles for our first dive and the kelp there is reduced by something like 75%. We had 54 degree water (so getting closer to "normal" 52 degrees as the pseudo almost El Nino fades away). Visibility was easily 40 ft and due to partly sunny skies and parse kelp coverage, light was excellent.
Greg found a large wolf eel in a deep crevice.
The wolf eel was hard to get a picture of, I didn't want to scratch my just repolished lens port.
The giant kelp, bull kelp, and the short palm kelp have all been tremendously trimmed by rapacious sea urchins. You can see one on top of the remains of a palm kelp just below the ling cod.
The pinnacles have huge canyons that are great to explore when you've got good visibility.
The reduced stands of giant kelp are packed with kelp loving blue rockfish.
Yes, once again, one would say there was a plethora of blue rockfish.
For more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6107720736262705761?authkey=CO35_OGytr6GggE
We decided to make our second dive near shore inside the wash rock SE of Cypress Point. Normally this area is inaccessible due to dense kelp - giant kelp spreading on the surface and dense palm kelp covering the bottom. Again, due to ravenous hordes of sea urchins and large winter seas, the kelp is about 95% gone. I sure hope it recovers soon but it sure makes exploring new sites easy. A passing Great White would easily spot an inattentive harbor seal, sea lion, sea otter, or diver when cruising through the area...We again had excellent visibility and light. We covered a lot of ground on this dive in 20 - 40 ft of water - both to explore and to keep from freezing.
We were buzzed by sea lions a few times during our dive but they didn't linger for photos. We also saw a sea otter but we were not close enough for a photo.
I spotted this group of Leafy Hornmouth snails laying eggs.
Greg getting a shot of a lingcod. Note how little kelp there is in the expanse of "urchin barrens".
A curious grass rockfish in one of the spots that still has Palm Kelp.
If you'd like to see a few more pictures from this dive, please go to :
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6107721269568025313?authkey=CPrw8IDl9MSdRg
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