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.....