On our way out of Monterey Bay, headed for diving in Carmel Bay, Greg Hoberg and I saw lots of sea birds, mainly gulls, feeding near Point Pinos. When we got close, Greg spotted thousands and thousands of Pelagic red crabs in the water. We'd heard of these before, they are normally found off Baja California and sometimes come ashore on Southern California beaches but are rare this far north. El Nino conditions seem to bring them here. They are an important food source for humpbacks, blue whales, sea lions, seals, and sea birds. So here are some pictures from Greg's boat.
Greg took these next four surface shots. I managed to grab one, yes, they do pinch! Didn't break the skin, though.
I couldn't help wishing I had a net, bet they would be quite tasty and we could have netted hundreds quickly, but then where would we put them?
There were thousands on the surface and extending down out of sight.
A single frame from Greg's Gopro video.
After the fun with the pelagic crabs we went to Pescadero Point in Carmel Bay and made two excellent dives. Pescadero Point is one of our favorite dive sites though the visibility there is often not as good as some of our other sites. On these dives we had 20 to 25 ft of visibility and 57 degree water temperature at the bottom, still 5 degrees or so above normal.
White Dendronotid Nudibranch, about two inches long.
Kelp crab with two white spotted rose anemones.
Greg taking a photo of the kelp crab.
Cabezon have amazing camouflage, right of center near the bottom of the picture.
Great rock structure at Pescadero Point.
Greg gets a photo of a decorator crab on the stalk of a palm kelp.
For more pelagic crab photos and more pictures from these two dives, please go to:
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