Greg Hoberg and I made two dives in Carmel Bay on "The Day of the Dead" on Thursday. We saw a pod of Risso's Dolphins as we neared Pt Pinos on our way out of Monterey Bay. Conditions were a bit rougher than we hoped but we knew we were likely to have excellent visibility as a reward to the slogging through chop to get to Carmel Bay and back. Our first dive was on the Pinnacles, we were happy again to see slow recovery of both Bull and Giant Kelp on the Pinnacles, though it is still probably 30 percent of normal. We were rewarded with 20 ft (in first twenty feet at the surface) to 80 ft of visibility in the chili 49 degree fresh upwelled water. Below are some photos from our dive, form more, go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iBsT7kFx8qamQDnJ9
Male Kelp Greenling, I saw a couple fighting over territory yesterday so they will be competing for females and guarding the eggs soon.
Still way too many sea urchins, in normal conditions you only find tucked into crevices during the day. Hopefully the sea otters, growing sea stars, wolf eels, and occasional California Sheephead will trim their numbers so that the kelp continues to expand.
Many places on the Pinnacles has lots of hydro coral.
Greg spotted this Mosshead Warbonnet, a really cool looking fish about 7 inches long. It's only about the third one I've managed to get a picture of.
Mosshead Warbonnet, Blood Star, and Black Sea Urchins
We had great visibility under the surface layer, as you can see here.
Cabezon are the largest sculpin in California. They have excellent camouflage so frequently you don't even see one until you've got so close it takes off. They are hard to spot in natural light, do you see this one?
He stands out when lit up by my strobe flash.
Greg shooting the Cabezon.
We were visited by a dive bombing sea lion. They always surprise you and typically your camera is set up for shooting closeups...
Our second dive was near Pescadero Point where some Giant Kelp is just starting to recover, maybe 20 percent of normal at this point, still far too many sea urchins. We had 30 to 50 ft of visibility, 49 degrees. I was happy my drysuit kept me dry and almost warm. Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XdtQa8YeFfMfzTLz9
Lingcod on his perch.
Sea Lemon Nudibranch with lots of sea urchin in the background and no kelp, no coralline algae which would normally be present, due to the voracious hordes of sea urchins.
This is something you never, ever, ordinarily will see. An abalone is out in the open in broad daylight, looking for algae or kelp to eat because it is starving due to the way the sea urchins have scoured the bottom. He's a sitting duck for any passing sea otter!
Greg getting a shot of a Black Surfperch, the same time I do the same.
I just missed getting a picture of something I hadn't seen before. Just above the sea urchins you can see a decorator crab that was munching on a sea lemon nudibranch, which he dropped on my approach for a closeup. I've never seen a crab eating a nudibranch before.
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