Two Dives at Monolobo July 23, 2020

Greg Hoberg and I managed to schedule a day of diving with really calm conditions so we were able to take his boat at high speed both down to the southeast end of Carmel Bay and back to the Monterey Breakwater boat ramp.  As we cruised out of Monterey Bay I was pleased to see that the kelp continues to recover on Chase Reef and at Point Pinos.  As we passed Pt Joe headed south it was good to see the kelp recovering there as well, maybe a third of normal at this point...a lot better than zero where it was for a couple of years with the urchin plague following the sea star wasting disease in 2013. The swell was small enough that we checked out the wash rocks off Cypress Point for a possible second dive on the way back but the water was not clear there at all.  We looked at the Pinnacles as we passed them, they have maybe 20% of normal kelp now, visibility looked better but still not good.  When we got to Monolobo the water had turned bluer and visibility looked promising from the boat.  Surface temperature was 56 degrees, during the dive my dive computer reported 50 degrees, so there was some upwelling from the immediately adjacent Carmel Canyon, a branch of the huge Monterey Canyon.  Thanks to the fresh upwelling we had visibility averaging about 30 ft, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Below are some photos from our two dives at Monolobo, to see the rest, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZYEjVoKqidS4NyDR8

Greg repositioning the anchor.  Always a concern after we're back in his boat after our dive is "Can we get the anchor up?"  All too often one of us has to go back in.  Because the bottom where we anchored was just a huge rockpile we did something different this time, at the end of our second dive I got back in the boat and started hauling the anchor, Greg went down to the anchor to make sure I was successful.  Still had to fight to get it up the last 10 feet through the giant kelp but we're sure glad the kelp is back at this site, probably about 75% of normal.

It was great to be diving in a huge kelp forest with good visibility and light again.  Magical.

                                         Decorator Crab

     Monolobo has huge rock structures with canyons and mini-walls.

                                          Fish Eating Anemone

                                          Kelp Rockfish

    Greg with school of Blue Rockfish.  It was great to see them schooling again now that there is a kelp forest again.  I think they were smiling about it.

   Blue Rock Crab

    Urchin Barrens!  On the first dive we stayed in massive healthy Giant Kelp Forest, on the second dive we took a loop out in the opposite direction and came to a clear demarcation where, suddenly, there were still thousands upon thousands of purple sea urchins that had eaten every shred of kelp.  The mystery is why there is still this huge urchin barrens right next to a big area of few urchins and healthy thick kelp everywhere....

   Greg found a lingcod.

We had two really good dives and, glory be, I stayed completely dry and snug as a bug in the rug in my drysuit!