Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of great, calm, sea conditions, something that has been rare this spring, to take his rigid inflatable boat down to Carmel Bay to dive at Mono-lobo and off Pescadero Point on Fire Rock. As we left the Monterey Harbor we saw about 40 commercial fishing boats purse seining for squid off Hopkin's Marine Lab and Lover's Point. There were quite a number of Risso's dolphins, which feed exclusively on squid, all through the area. The water in Monterey Bay was quite green as we enter the summer season of dense plankton and algae blooms...Sadly all the way from Monterey Harbor down into Carmel Bay we saw only a few small patches of kelp. I'd say kelp is down about 95% from normal. There are still hordes of sea urchins creating urchin barrens and a recent article said that now the adult sized sea urchins are so starved that there is not enough nutrition in them to make it worth the work a sea otter must do to eat them. We had very calm conditions so sped quickly down to Carmel Bay.
At Mono-lobo we were encouraged to see that its kelp bed, which recovered last summer to maybe 75% of normal, seems to be maintaining itself and may expand further now that we are at the point of the year of maximum kelp growth. From the surface we estimated that we'd have 30 ft visibility but our actual visibility varied from 30 ft to maybe 20 ft, not bad by summer standards. Water temp was 52.7 F at the surface, a chilly 48 degrees at the bottom. We were please to not see hordes of sea urchins on our dive. We saw the usual mix of lingcod and rockfish on our dive, but no Cabezon.
Vermilion Rockfish, they just look like a dark brown fish at the depths where you see them until your strobe adds back the red light that was attenuated by water absorption.
Vermilion Rockfish above, Treefish (another type of rockfish) below. Both species tend to be a bit shy, especially Treefish, so I was pleased to get both in a shot.
Mono-lobo has a kelp forest again!
Greg spotted a couple different UFOs, unidentified floating objects, aka Whatsits. TBD...
Check out the Treefish's pink lips.
San Diego Dorid Nudibranch, almost five inches long.
A pair of White Dendronotid Nudibranchs, a couple inches long. Not bad with my wide angle fish eye 10-17 mm Tokina lens.
Bull Kelp at the surface
Frond of giant kelp on the surface above bull kelp, so glad to have Mono-lobo's kelp forest back, it sure makes safety stops more relaxing and interesting.
For more pictures from our dive at Mono-lobo please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uuHu82ZxEwt1AOCj1
Our second dive was at Fire Rock off Pescadero Point. We had 15 to 20 ft of visibility, the water was quite green. Water temp was 49 degrees. Sadly, the site is almost without kelp, normally anchoring here is a challenge because of its huge, wide, dense, kelp bed. Now there are hordes of sea urchins stripping it of all forms of kelp and algae.
This rock should have giant or bull or at least palm kelp attached, instead it is covered in sea urchins...
White Sea Anemone
A pair of beautiful Chestnut Cowries, with their mantels out covering much of their shells.
In the center of the picture you can see an acorn barnacle with his legs out snatching plankton from the water. It's heavily covered by strawberry or club, anemones. The density of life at Fire Rock, along with the color, is amazing.
Short spine purple sea urchins and longer spined red sea urchin.
Black and Yellow Rockfish
To the right and below the dark hole in the center are living acorn barnacles, there are lots and lots more of these than before the sea star wasting disease devastated their main predator starting in 2013, though their numbers (except for the sunflower star) are slowly recovering. The large hole is a left behind hole from the death of a large, now gone, acorn barnacle. Above the hole, to the left are the empty skeletons of a couple of acorn barnacles, probably devoured by a sea star.
To see more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uIeklOn5wG5UMGOs2
Between dives Greg flew his new, amazing, compact drone. I look forward to getting bird's eye video of our favorite dives sites. After our second dive we cruised up Monterey Bay to Moss Landing in search of whales. On our way back from Moss Landing we spotted some whale watching boats and swung by for a look. We lucked out with first sea lions, and then six humpbacks surfacing near Greg's boat. A great day's outing.
This rock should have giant or bull or at least palm kelp attached, instead it is covered in sea urchins...
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