Metridium Mountain, Post Retirement Dive #832 May 3, 2025

I had a very memorable dive with Guy Foster with Beachhopper II on Saturday. Gale force winds were in the forecast for later in the morning and small craft advisories had been up overnight so it was breezy and choppy as we headed out and became rougher as we approached the dive site. Upon descending all was calm with excellent 30 to 50 ft of visibility. Metridium Mountain with its dense population of white Plumrose (Metridium) Sea Anemones at 55-60 ft of depth became visible quickly as we descended. Below:

Below are some photos from the dive, for more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8HfPyDYW7zzoMwaXA Below: A pair of Pile Perch

The site also has lots of Tube Anemones in the sand around the site's boulders, below:

As I began a circle of the site a Cabezon suddenly shot over my left shoulder and then did a headstand, not normal behaviour, on the bottom up ahead of me. I realized it was struggling with an octopus. I didn't get a photo of the struggle but after the octopus escaped I got a photo of the octopus with the Cabezon in the background and a couple pretty good photos of the understandably upset octopus. In the first picture below, the octopus has just gotten free of the Cabezon (near bottom, center, of wide angle shot), followed by a zoomed in view of the two of them.

Next, as I got closer to the octopus, an excited Gopher Rockfish briefly considered trying its luck with the octopus, it wisely demurred. Second photo is zoomed in on the beautiful, alarmed, octopus. Below:

I got three more photographs as the octopus quickly retreated to safety, below:

Next, one of the other divers on our trip, not sure who, attempted to get a shot of the octopus back in its hole. Below:

A beautiful, concerned, Copper Rockfish, below:

A large, beautiful Lingcod on its perch, below:

A Sea Lion came past to check us out, below:

Another Lingcod parked in the sand, below:

Another Copper Rockfish, below:

Guy near the anchor line, below:

I got some pictures of a pretty Treefish (a rockfish), which are frequently very shy:

Another Lingcod confidently perched amongs Metridium (Plumrose Sea Anemones), below:

This was a wonderful dive. I started back up with at least 700 pounds pressure for my three minute safety stop at 20 ft and for the tricky boarding of Beachhopper II in rough seas....My fins aren't easy to get off and Laura did a great job of getting them off me while the dive platform rose and plunged. I boarded the boat with only 250 pounds pressure remaining.. Out of an over abundance of caution (I'm leaving on big dive trip to the Philippines in 41 days, not that I'm counting or anything) I decided to sit out the next dive and I missed a great one from everyone's reports...

Pinnacles, Carmel Bay, Post Retirement Dive #831 May 1, 2025

Greg and I finally synched up, got his boat and trailer ready for diving, and caught a nice day yesterday. We just made a single dive but it was really a good one. Saw a whale blow at Cypress Point on the way back but didn't get a close up look at the whale, almost certainly a Humpback. We had 20 to 30 ft of visibility and were glad to see some Giant and Bull Kelp on the Pinnacles but it is pretty sparse after a winter of storms and still too many sea urchins. A beautiful dive with immensely dense invertebrates, lots of rockfish and one large beautiful lingcod. Below are some photos from our dive, to see more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i1M4TheGhQBp3hTj6 At the start of our dive, right after going down the anchor line and checking that the anchor was well positioned for pulling up after the dive, we spotted this Palm Kelp heavily infested with Yellow Hydroids. Below:

I always try to photo China Rockfish when I see them, they are beautiful and usually quite shy, but this one showed a lot of patience with me, below:

A pretty White Dendronotus nudibranch, about 3 inches long, below:

We dropped our anchor right into a beautiful, narrow, canyon and spent our entire dive going up and down the canyon's walls and exploring some of the large bolders where our anchor landed. The canyon's walls had lots of beautiful multi-colored hydrocorals. Below:

A Yelow Sea Lemon Nudibranch, below:

Greg searching the canyon's wall for his next subject, below:

Below: I was careful to not ask this heavy Kelp Rockfish if she was gravid with eggs or was digesting a large meal...

A Gopher Rockfish with dense invertebrate life and still too many Purple Oceans out in the open, looking for grazing.

I'm always thrilled to encounter large fish, so here's several shots of a beautiful large (20 pounds or so) Lingcod, below:

A fun, great, dive. It was wonderful to be back out in Greg's boat which continues to be astoundingly reliable. Tomorrow, Guy Foster and I will be going out with Beachhopper II to dive.....but there are gale warnings so.....