Guy Foster, his daughter Tessa, and I went out with the Sanctuary dive boat out of Monterey Harbor for two dives in Carmel Bay yesterday. Conditions were quite calm, very light breeze, no wind chop, only a small swell running. Because of light winds for the last two weeks there is little to no upwelling from canyons so the surface water was quite green but visibility opened up nicely once you got under the plankton bloom. Surface temperatures with no upwelling were up to 59 degrees, it was 52 degrees down 60 ft. We saw some Humpbacks in the distance while traveling to and from the dive sites. I was pleased to see continued recovery of the kelp beds, they are back to maybe 50% of normal.
Our first dive was off the Butterfly House. It's an area with tall rock ridges running out from shore toward deeper water. Depths of 30 - 40 ft on the top of the ridges, 65 -75 ft in between. Below are some pictures from this first dive of the day, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FCok2x1bWCzN7mpLA
On this dive I went ahead and splashed first, Guy and Tessa took their time as she was making her second open water dive with her new dry suit. Visibility was 10 to 15 ft near the surface, up to about 35 ft on the bottom.
San Diego Dorid nudibranch with a red sea urchin. Still too many sea urchins but the kelp is starting to recover, at this site, the kelp is growing from the heights of the ridges. Happily I'm steadily seeing more sea stars and more variety of sea stars, but I've still not seen a Sunflower Star since 2014, I'm afraid it is locally extinct.
Gopher Rockfish and China Rockfish.
Juvenile China Rockfish
San Diego Dorid nudibranch devouring a sponge.
I'm quite pleased with this zoomed in closeup of the San Diego Dorid eating a sponge. Shot with my wide angle fisheye Tokina 10-17 mm lens.
We have a few California Sheephead in Carmel Bay. They are quite shy and you usually just get a fleeting glance of them. This one was about 16-18 inches long and I think it is still a female which is just beginning its transition to a male.
Monterey Nudibranch
Black Rockfish
Our second dive was on the Inner Pinnacle near the NW corner of Carmel Bay. We had 10-15 ft of visibility at the surface and 25 ft at the bottom. Guy, Tessa, and I enjoyed the newly grown kelp stands and the very large schools of hundreds of blue rockfish schooling in them. I swear the blue rockfish were smiling to be sheltering in kelp beds again! Below are some pictures from this dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Uf8BP8L25ZmR2L3d6
You can see the water was quite green but visibility at the bottom was still pretty good.
Hydro Coral is common on the Pinnacles. It likes high water flow at the edge of kelp beds.
Yes, I would say there was a plethora of happy Blue Rockfish!
Kelp Rockfish
Guy in his new drysuit.
Monterey Dorid nudibranch and still too many red and purple sea urchins, though the kelp is recovering.
It's nice to have kelp to hang with during our three minute safety stop.
Now for the surface swim back to the Sanctuary
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