Favorite Diving Photos for 2018

Guy Foster and I were scheduled to dive with Beachhopper II at Pt. Lobos today, one last dive to finish off a great year of diving.  Well, the forecast deteriorated, the seas were large, and Beachhopper developed steering problems so no dive on December 30th afterall.

So I decided to do my final dive blog for the year and show some of my favorite (not necessarily best...) diving pictures of the year.  Here's a link to more:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/eaWn7EiPMvSqm1UV9

My diving this year was lots of Monterey and Carmel Bay diving and two spectacular dive trips.  The first to the Revillagegidos Islands (aka Socorro) in April and and the Channel Islands in Southern California in November.

A large, dark lingcod at Fire Rock, off Pescadero Pt. Carmel Bay, in February, to start off the 2018 diving year.

                              White Dendronotid Nudibranch, about 3 inches long, Fire Rock.

In April I joined a "Ray of Hope" diving expedition to tag Giant Manta Rays in the Revillagigedo Islands about 200 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, it's a day and a half boat cruise to get there.  I had a hard time deciding which pictures to show.

    Juvenile Whale Shark, Roca Partida, Revillagigedo Islands

                                Wahoo, a great gamefish, was thrilled to see them and photo them.

                  Large Yellowfin Tuna, Roca Partida

                                Almaco, aka Amberjack

 Tiger Shark, Tiger Gardens, Revillagigedo Islands

                                       Juvenile Green Sea Turtle

                                          Juvenile Clarion Angelfish

                               Dos Amigos, Tiger Gardens

    Octopus and Grouper cooperatively hunting, Revillagigedo Islands

                           Guy Foster with Plumrose Anemones, Deep Hopkins Reef

                                Sea Lion, Deep Hopkin's Reef

In August we received our new Tesla Model 3, "Deep Blue" with extended range battery for nonstop 200 mile drive from Healdsburg to Monterey for early morning dive departures.  A blast to drive and the "frunk" in the front is the perfect space to carry two scuba tanks....

                       Coonstripe Shrimp, Erik's Pinnacle, Sept 2018

                               Blue Banded Ronquil, Erik's Pinnacle

 Yellow Spotted Cadlina, Monolobo, Sept 2018

                                       Leopard Nudibranch, Monolobo

                                Harbor Seal, Hopkin's Reef

                      Monolobo seascape, the kelp forest here is finally recovering from the urchin plague which followed the sea star wasting disease which first struck in 2013

                                        Acorn Barnacle, Paint Splatter

                                                 Fire Rock Seascape

                 Greg Hoberg with Blue Rockfish, Pinnacles, Carmel Bay

                               Greg with Cabezon, Pinnacles

                                           Oil Rig, November Vision trip

                                California Sheephead, Channel Islands, November 2018

Diving off the seal lion rookeries was incredibly fun.

    Black Sea Bass, Torpedo Alley, I had twenty minutes by myself with this magnificent fish, unforgettable.

                          Mike Williams with many sea lions

                                Que Pasa?

                                Happy New Year!

Very Good Dive at Mono-lobo, but we paid for it December Bel12, 2018

Greg Hoberg and I gambled on a slight improvement in sea conditions and the wind forecast to take his boat from Monterey Breakwater to Mono-lobo in Carmel Bay last Wednesday.  The boat trip down was ok, a bit rougher than normal in Monterey Bay, bigger swells than usual rounding Pt Pinos, but then a nice run down into Carmel Bay.    After rounding Cypress Point into Carmel Bay we encountered a very large pod of Risso's dolphins, probably a hundred or so.  They were definitely in squid hunting mode and the entire group sounded simultaneously, we went on to our diving site selection.  Because of the breaking swells we found that Mono-lobo was a better choice than our usual stop for rough conditions, Pescadero Point and Fire Rock.  Below are some photos from our single dive at Mono-lobo, we went back to Monterey after surfacing from our dive due to rising winds from the North, the direction we had to go to get home...  To see more from this dive, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/bJgFgusRe6uTpuFu8

The top 15 ft or so had lots of tiny bubbles of air in it from nearby breakers on the rocks, once you got below that we had around 45 ft of visibility, water temp was 53 degrees.  I was in my wetsuit because I'm getting the neck seal replaced on my drysuit.  One dive with a wetsuit is ok, second is bone chilling.

A sea lemon or Monterey dorid nudibranch, similar, I forget which has black spots only on tubercules...About four inches long.

                                      Olive Rockfish

 Greg with Vermilion Rockfish, I haven't frequently seen them parked on a rock like this.

                                     Vermilion Rockfish, parked.

 

 The sea urchins are back to cowering in crevices at Mono-lobo, which is why its kelp forest has recovered so well, finally.

Juvenile abalone, about 2 inches across, cruising boldly in the open.

   I always prefer making our safety stop hanging in kelp, one reason being critters to photo...

We quickly hauled up our anchor after surfacing, in a stiff northerly wind trying to push us into the rocks. It was a long, rough ride back to Monterey.  I slept very well that night.