Two Good Dives with Sanctuary on Octopus Reef and Inside Hopkins June 22, 2019

Saturday I had two good dives with Sanctuary along with Tessa and Guy Foster.  It was good to get in the water again, my last dive was back on May 17 in Florida.  There was a large swell running so we stated inside Monterey Bay.

Our first dive was going to be at Erik's Pinnacle but another dive boat snuck in ahead of us so we moved to Octopus Reef just off Lover's Point.  Below are some pictures from this dive, to see more please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/BTkkKqtauyJNQEE97

A boulder covered with strawberry anemones, if you look closely you can see Sanctuary's shadow above with the anchor chain rising towards it.

Octopus Reef is a large rocky reef with some parts maybe ten feet high.  The reef runs east to west in 53 ft of water just North of the eastern edge of Lover's Point.

                                          San Diego Dorid

                                  I managed to get a couple of shots of a shy male Kelp Greenling

                                          Black Eyed Goby

                                          Always a favorite California diving subject, a Cabezon.

Our second dive was near Hopkin's Marine Station in 38 ft of water just inside the outside edge of the gradually recovering kelp forest.  Below are some pictures from this dive, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UHYbNFnX55zW8rQc8

                                          Kelp Rockfish in Hopkin's thriving kelp forest.

   The snowy appearance of this kelp is due to its being covered in snail, I think Kelllet's Whelk, eggs.

I was accompanied by this female California Sheepshead for most of my dive, I'm sure it is helping the Sea Otters munch down the plague of sea urchins whose numbers here were greatly reduced.  California Sheepshead are not common up in Monterey but there numbers have been slowly growing.

                                          Blue Rockfish

I found a huge old sea anchor, its flukes were at least six feet across, the anchor was about 10 ft long.

    Diving by myself, I liked someone to show scale.  The about 18 inch Sheepshead helps...

                                          I decided to shoot a selfie but it didn't help with scale...

  Kelp Forests are magical when you have good visibility and sunlight from above.

                                                  The California Sheepshead kept me company.

          I also was visited several times by this Calico (aka Kelp) Bass, these are, like the Sheepshead, common down in the Channel Islands but before this dive I had only seen them at the Breakwater in Monterey.