Two Very Good Dives with the Sanctuary. Butterfly House, Eric's Pinnacle July 29,2017

Guy Foster and I took a dive trip on the Sanctuary last Saturday.  There was a five foot swell running buy very light wind so Captain Mitch was willing to take us down to Carmel Bay.  Off Pt Joe we spotted something strange looking floating about a half mile offshore.  We went out to investigate and discovered, sadly, a dead humpback whale.  Probable killed by a ship strike.  After telling the Coast Guard about the hazard to navigation we went on down to Carmel Bay and dived off the Butterfly House.  We anchored maybe a couple hundred yards offshore about 150 feet off the edge of the Bull Kelp edging the shore.  We dived a beautiful ridge structure, 60 ft deep at the bottom, the ridge tops about 32 feet.  We had 25 - 30 ft of visibility and 51 degree water temp.  Here is the link to see my pictures from the dive plus four surface pictures from Guy Foster.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bvhL83fKlKkfYoAQ2

Here's some pictures from our trip and the dive off the Butterfly House:

 A sad, and smelly, sight, a dead Humpback about a half mile offshore.  It may end up on Asilomar Beach..  Photo by Guy Foster.

 Photo by Guy Foster

                                        Butterfly House, Carmel Bay    Photo by Guy Foster

    China Rockfish, frequently shy, but this guy was pretty cooperative.

                                                 China Rockfish

                                           A crabby crab, due to my strobe

                                                       Painted Greenling

                                         Black Rockfish, comfortably ensconced.

Our second dive was back in Monterey Bay on Pacific Grove's Eric's Pinnacle, one of the top sites in Monterey Bay.  We had less visibility on this dive, 15 ft at the surface with hordes of purple striped jellyfish and 20 ft at the bottom.  Here is the link to pictures from this dive below are a few I put in the blog.
Eric's Pinnacle:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FQEntxIdu98OTNLu1

                                          Brown Cup Coral, about 3/4 inches across

                                          Juvenile Gopher Rockfish, about 3 inches long

                                          Chiton

                                          Bluering Topsnail and Painted Greenling

                                          Tough neighborhood, larger snail attacking small black one to its left

                                                  Sculpin, who knows what kind...

                                          Bluering Topsnail and Strawberry Anemones

Surfacing through Jellyfish

                                          Back to the Sanctuary, photo by Guy Foster

Good dives at Mono-lobo and Pescadero Point July 26, 2017

Greg Hoberg and I had two good dives last Wednesday in Carmel Bay.  We had very calm seas so were able to make very quick trips down and back.  On the way down we saw several large Risso's dolphins at Chase Reef inside Point Pinos.  Later, we saw Humpbacks off Point Lobos.  Unusually, we saw no whale spouts, the first time we've seen Humpbacks without visible spouts.  Both dives had 15 ft visibility, about average for summer, and more or less typical water temp of 52 degrees.  We were very please to see that the kelp is starting to recover at both Mono-lobo and Pescadero Point though coverage is still only about 20 % of normal.  Still way too many sea urchins.

                                         Juvenile Gopher Rockfish, about four inches long.  I was shooting with my 60 mm Canon macro lens, a good choice for limited visibility.

                                           Yellow Edged Cadlina, about 3 inches long

                                         Juvenile Wolf Eel

                                          Juvenile Wolf Eel

                                          Rainbow Star

                                          Juvenile Copper Rockfish

                                          Juvenile Black and Yellow Rockfish, about three inches long

                                          Red (ish) Sea squirt (tunicate) looks like a lost plastic toy at 10 fathoms...

    Painted Greenling on a serving of macaroni and cheese...make that a yellow encrusting sponge

    Large Vermilion Rockfish face

                                                 Sea Cucumber

                                         A red What's It.  A sea cucumber, but where is its body.

For more from this dive please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/aUCVRGm7WipeZgH12


Pescadero Point

                                         Blue Ring Top Snail

                                          Sea Lemon Nudibranch

                                         Serpulid Worm

                                         Orange Cup Coral

                                         Serpulid Worm

                                          Red and Purple Urchins

                                           Painted Greenling with Strawberry Anemones

                                          Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites, here is an amorous pair

                                TBD Anemone

For more from our dive at Pescadero Point, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/O8gNRQCnaQxqh9vQ2

Pescadero Point

Otter Cove Saturday, July 15, 2017

Last Saturday I made a solo afternoon dive at Otter Cove in Pacific Grove.  I had bagged going diving the day before when I was told visibility was only 5 ft at the Coast Guard Breakwater.  My wife Donna and I went for a walk on the Pacific Grove oceanside trail and I was surprised how clear the water looked so walked back to our place to load up my dive gear in our car and brought it and Donna's painting gear to Otter Cove.

I had a very enjoyable dive.  Average visibility was 15 ft, water temp was 50 degrees.  I saw rockfish and a lingcod and several interesting nudibranchs and a moonsnail. Otter Cove has about 20% of its normal giant kelp bed, but that's better than zero!  It was a long dive and I missed my usual turn to shore and ended up halfway to Lover's Point and ended up with a long, tiring (especially after my long walk before the dive) swim back.  The Otter Cove stairs, where Donna was painting, were taller than ever before.  My 51st year of diving, it's not just the miles, it's the years....

                                              Painted Greenling, I usually have to photo at least one per dive...

                                         Moonsnail, the mollusk's foot is much bigger than the shell.

                                                     Tube Anemone

                                          Black Eyed Goby

                                          Brown Cup Coral, about 3/4 inch across

                                          Copper Rockfish

                                          Juvenile sea star, saw lots of health spiny sea stars but, still, not a single sunflower sea star, which used to be very common at Otter Cove.  Haven't seen one since 2013!  I'm afraid that they are locally extinct from the sea star wasting disease disaster of 2013.

                               Tube Worm

                                                  Yellow Dorid Nudibranch

                               Initially I thought that this was one Horned Nudibranch/Hermissenda Crassicornis and one Hilton's Nudibranch because of the difference in their cerrata but now I'm pretty sure this is a pair of Horned Nudibranch aka Opalescent Nudibranchs.

                            These Nudibranchs are each about 3 inches long.

                                         Copper Rockfish Face

                                          Juvenile Lingcod Face

                                          Kelp Rockfish

                                  I never knew I'd be so delighted to see new kelp holdfasts, but after years of sea urchin hordes following the sea star wasting disease, I am!

For still more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vJWlMwJNIrxiMcFu1