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