Two Excellent Dives with Beachhopper II, my 777th and 778th post retirement dives, at Butterfly House III in Carmel Bay and Mr Ed in Monterey Bay, 8-31-2024

I joined Guy Foster for an excellent day of diving with Beachhopper II on Saturday, August 31. Our first dive was in Carmel Bay off Butterfly House, a great dive site, unfortunately its an urchin barrens along with 90% of Carmel Bay. Still beautiful with lots of rockfish and nudibranchs and quite a bit of hydracoral. Visibility was around 30 ft. As we entered Carmel Bay we were delighted to see a couple Humpback Whales. Below are some pictures from this dive, to see more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XrT4Uyo13mcQK1te7 Below: I was greeted by a curious Gopher Rockfish as I reached the bottom. I was shooting macro with my 60 mm Canon lens.

I soon spotted a Hilton's Aoelid Nudibranch, about 2 inches long, below:

An Acorn Barnacle, buried in Strawberry Anemones, filter feeding, below:

Below, a Yellow Edged Cadlina Nudibranch with a juvenile Kellet's Whelk:

Above: A California Cone Snail hunting, watch out for his poisonous harpon! Below: A very small juvenile rockfish, about 1 1/2 inches long.

I saw lots of San Diego Dorids, aka Leopard Nudibranchs. This one was sort of a yellow ochre rather than their usually predominant white color, like the one following further...below:

Above: A beautiful Chestnut Cowry Below: A Monterey Dorid Nudibranch with a Blood Star

Below: Painted Greenling

Our second dive was back in Monterey Bay at Mr Ed. We had great visibility as we dropped down, easily 30 ft, maybe 40 ft. I finally found and photographed Ed's reclusive Wolf Eel. I'll now have to stop being skeptical when Ed talks about this Wolf Eel. Below are some photos from this dive, including the Wolf Eel, which I spotted simultaneously with my dive computer warning that I was nearing my no decompression limit, below.

Above: Ed's elusive Wolf Eel, at Mr. Ed! To see the rest of the photos, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xnsZ9SjUjHubnrPJ6 I had lots of fun with patient Treefish (rockfish) and Ling Cod on this dive. Below:

My next diving blog will cover the snorkeling and diving Donna and I will be doing off Vanua Levu during our week long stay at a wonderful vrbo Bure 50 ft off the beach that we stayed at 10 years ago.