Monday, March 16, 2020

Good Dives with Beachhopper II on Metridium Mountain and Aquarium March 7, 2020

Guy Foster and I had two good dives with Beachhopper II last Saturday.  Our first dive was on Metridium Mountain which is very well named.  Its a big site with depths of 45 to 70 ft.  We had visibility around 20 to 25 ft at the bottom, less at the surface.  There was an abundance of Purple Striped Sea Nettles.  Below on a few pictures from this dive, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3b2GM2ruAP2Q2CeP8

There were lots of Purple Striped Sea Nettles near the surface and in mid-water but few down at the bottom.

                               Metridium everywhere, aka Plumrose Anemones


                                Treefish

                                               Guy getting some shots.


                                Lingcod, it was in a protected area.

                               Up the anchor line for a 20 ft safety stop

     Sea Nettles provided entertainment while making safety stop, you can just see BeachHopper's shadow 20 ft above.


Our second dive was off the Monterey Aquarium, just East of its intake pipes.  We had some Giant Kelp on this dive, good to see.  I was visited by perhaps the largest sea otter ever on this dive, thought it was a Harbor Sea initially but realized it color and motion were wrong.  They are shy around scuba and I failed to get a decent photo of it...

                                 Female California Sheephead, there are more of these in Monterey than there used to be as fish shift up the coast with global warming.

                                Olive Rockfish

                                Aquarium's intake pipes







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