Charlie's Diving Blog: Good dives on Erik's Pinnacle and the Shale Reef with Sanctuary September 23, 2017

I had two good dives with the Sanctuary dive boat out of Monterey last Saturday. When the morning started winds were calm and so were the seas with a average swell running, but shrinking. However, though early conditions were good the marine forecast was for small craft warnings in the afternoon with west winds of 15 to 25 knots. I was hoping since it was calm at departure time that Sanctuary would take us to Carmel Bay for our first dive but the captain, Mitch, decided to avoid a likely rough return by staying inside Monterey Bay. While leaving the harbor with six paying divers (one, visiting from the Netherlands paid Paula, our dive master, for two guided tour dives), the water was jam packed with millions of Yellow purple striped sea nettle jellyfish. The most I've ever seen by a long shot. There must have been an average of 20 sea nettles per cubic foot of water! Fortunately, when we got to our dive site, Erik's Pinnacle, there were only the normal seasonal scattering of sea nettles on the incoming tide. Visibility at the surface, which was very green to brown with algae/plankton was only 6 to 8 ft but down about 15 to 20 feet the visibility opened up to 25 ft or so. Water temp at the bottom was a normal seasonal 51 degrees. Below are some photos from this dive, to see more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NJwS5vBlyYoXJVSH2

Visibility at the bottom, 60 ft, at Erik's Pinnacle was a decent 25 ft.

A tube anemone with a couple of (the still too many) sea urchins still limiting kelp bed growth.

A large Masking Crab

A startled Decorator Crab

Copper Rockfish

A Fish Eating Anemone on one of the large rocks scattered near Erik's Pinnacle.

Whitespotted Rose Anemone

Looking up Erik's Pinnacle, the water got greener with more algae and plankton as you approached the top of Erik's Pinnacle at about 20 ft (good place for a safety stop with some Giant Kelp re-established on it).

I spotted a Lingcod on my way up the pinnacle.

Morgan, one of the other divers on the trip, getting some shots on the pinnacle

I spotted a Snubnose Sculpin in amongst some large Acorn Barnacles. See him?

Not bad for shooting with my wide angle lens...

It's hard to make out but here is a large mussel on Erik's Pinnacle. You rarely if ever saw these at diving depths before the sea star wasting disease decimated the populations of Ochre and Spiny Sea Stars.

I shot some Yellow Purple Striped Sea Nettles while on my safety stop.

Our second dive site, which we went to after dropping off a couple very sea sick divers back at Monterey Harbor, was another favorite for me, the Shale Reef, about 300 yards or so off Del Monte Beach (I've done this once from shore but won't do it from shore again until the next time I'm 19...Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment...). Again, the water was murky brownish green with algae and plankton bloom due to consecutive sunny days without fog but, fortunately, it opened up to 20 to 25 ft of visibility once you got down about 20 ft. Below are some pictures from this dive, for more please go to:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3uS49xgA4X0DaxY52

One of the first things I spotted when I swam from the anchor over to the shale reef was this desperate young (only three inches across) abalone which had been force to leave its protective crevasse in order to rome the rocks trying to find enough plant life to eat because of hordes of ravenous sea urchins. It was surrounded by sea urchins and really struggling. I intervened by removing the sea urchins.

If you look closely you can see some Coonstripe Shrimp.

A Bluebanded Ronquil, about five inches long, only the second or third time I've photoed this fish.

The Shale Reef is on a different geologic plate than the rest of the Monterey peninsula. The shale reef is sandstone or limestone instead of the granite found on all our other local dive sites. The shale ledges remind me of the limestone ledges I dived when growing up in Dunedin, Florida.