Excellent Dives on the Pinnacles and near Pescadero Pt 11-1-2018

Greg Hoberg and I made two dives in Carmel Bay on "The Day of the Dead" on Thursday.  We saw a pod of Risso's Dolphins as we neared Pt Pinos on our way out of Monterey Bay.  Conditions were a bit rougher than we hoped but we knew we were likely to have excellent visibility as a reward to the slogging through chop to get to Carmel Bay and back.  Our first dive was on the Pinnacles, we were happy again to see slow recovery of both Bull and Giant Kelp on the Pinnacles, though it is still probably 30 percent of normal.  We were rewarded with 20 ft (in first twenty feet at the surface) to 80 ft of visibility in the chili 49 degree fresh upwelled water.  Below are some photos from our dive, form more, go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/iBsT7kFx8qamQDnJ9

Male Kelp Greenling, I saw a couple fighting over territory yesterday so they will be competing for females and guarding the eggs soon.

                                      Still way too many sea urchins, in normal conditions you only find tucked into crevices during the day.  Hopefully the sea otters, growing sea stars, wolf eels, and occasional California Sheephead will trim their numbers so that the kelp continues to expand.

                                         Many places on the Pinnacles has lots of hydro coral.

    Greg spotted this Mosshead Warbonnet, a really cool looking fish about 7 inches long.  It's only about the third one I've managed to get a picture of.

 Mosshead Warbonnet, Blood Star, and Black Sea Urchins

                       We had great visibility under the surface layer, as you can see here.

Cabezon are the largest sculpin in California.  They have excellent camouflage so frequently you don't even see one until you've got so close it takes off.  They are hard to spot in natural light, do you see this one?

                                          He stands out when lit up by my strobe flash.

                                                       Greg shooting the Cabezon.

 We were visited by a dive bombing sea lion.  They always surprise you and typically your camera is set up for shooting closeups...

Our second dive was near Pescadero Point where some Giant Kelp is just starting to recover, maybe 20 percent of normal at this point, still far too many sea urchins.  We had 30 to 50 ft of visibility, 49 degrees.  I was happy my drysuit kept me dry and almost warm.  Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/XdtQa8YeFfMfzTLz9

                                   Lingcod on his perch.

                                         Sea Lemon Nudibranch with lots of sea urchin in the background and no kelp, no coralline algae which would normally be present, due to the voracious hordes of sea urchins.

This is something you never, ever, ordinarily will see.  An abalone is out in the open in broad daylight, looking for algae or kelp to eat because it is starving due to the way the sea urchins have scoured the bottom.  He's a sitting duck for any passing sea otter!

 Greg getting a shot of a Black Surfperch, the same time I do the same.

I just missed getting a picture of something I hadn't seen before.  Just above the sea urchins you can see a decorator crab that was munching on a sea lemon nudibranch, which he dropped on my approach for a closeup.  I've never seen a crab eating a nudibranch before.

Two Very Good Dives at Mono-lobo October 23, 2018

Because of the great water visibility we had on our dives the day before, Greg Hoberg and I decided to dive a second dive.  The marine forecast was a bit better for the morning but it had not calmed overnight as much as we hoped.  We went on down to our favorite dive site, Mono-lobo, in Carmel Bay.  Our plan was to make one dive there and then our second somewhere on the way back to Monterey Bay.  The wind at the site was brisk but from the NE, which was unusual, usually the wind is from the NW or W.  Visibility was variable on the dive, between 30 and a wonderful 60 ft.  Water temp was 51 degrees.  Unfortunately, somehow, on the second day of using my newly refurbished drysuit, I got a little leakage on our first dive, more on the second, not enough to chill me, but really annoying!  We covered quite a lot of ground in a big circuit through Mono-lobo's happily regrown (maybe 70 percent of normal) Kelp forest.  Greg demonstrated his superb underwater navigation by putting us right back to the anchor line as we ended the dive....Then, unfortunately, we couldn't get our anchor up despite numerous attempts, so we decided to just make our second dive right there, you never run out of places to explore at Mono-lobo.  The wind came up more and shifted to the NW just before our surface interval was over so we decided to shorten our second dive because it looked like we were in for rough conditions for getting back to Monterey Bay.  Starting the second dive we went down the anchor line to find out why we couldn't raise the anchor and to make sure we'd be able to at the end of our second dive.  The anchor had dragged into a deep rock crevice and we'd have never raised it without diving to get it out....Both dives were really good, below are some pictures, for more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mS99fXVJRqRHw2NP7

                                   Beautiful Vermilion Rockfish

                                   Greg cruising in Mono-lobo's regrown kelp forest.

    Greg with a male Kelp Greenling

The combination of huge rock structures and kelp forest make Mono-lobo a magical place to dive.

                                           A Harbor Seal checked us out while we were making our safety stop.

    Greg found a really cool colored Lingcod, which I unfortunately disturbed so only have this one shot....

Very Good Dives on the Pinnacles and off Pt Joe October 22, 2018

Greg Hoberg and I decided to go ahead and do a day of diving though the wind forecast was higher than we like it to be and it had been breezy Sunday night.  We're really glad we decided to go.  The winds dropped off enough to give us an ok ride out of Monterey Bay and the mixed swell wasn't too bad.  We could tell as we cruised down to Carmel Bay that the water was going to be pretty clear.  Our first dive at the Pinnacles was wonderful, average visibility was easily 50 ft sometimes more.  Water temp was 53.  I was eager to use my refurbished DUI drysuit (I stayed dry!!) and my refurbished Nauticam case, it also worked splendidly.  Below are some photos from our dive, for more please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/3ueKBhenqmv6qWQe6

 We knew we would have good visibility based on what we could see looking down the finally regrowing kelp on the Pinnacles (East Pinnacle on this dive), but we were excited to immediately see the bottom 40 to 60 ft below us when we splashed.  There was a huge school of Blue Rockfish, which love to hang out in kelp forests.  I even, a rare occurrence, decided to shoot some video with my camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXxSewkMjnU&feature=youtu.be

Yes, I would say there was a plethora of rockfish!

Though still only about 25 or 30 percent of normal, happily, both Giant Kelp and Bull Kelp have returned on East Pinnacle.

We had excellent visibility and light, though there was a heavy marine layer blocking direct sunlight.  Keep in mind we're down about 40-50 ft in this shot...

Rounding a large rock structure I was happy to be able to take a picture, thanks to my wide angle Tokina 10-17 mm fisheye lens, of both a Cabezon and a Lingcod in the same photo.  You do see them, right?  Below are zoomed in edits of each of them....

                                          Lingcod

                         Well camouflaged Cabezon.

Greg getting closeups of another patient Cabezon he found.

Because of the forecast for rising winds we prudently headed back from Carmel Bay after our dive on the Pinnacles.  Our second dive was off Pt Joe.  Visibility was excellent though not as good as in Carmel Bay.  Average visibility was about 40 ft.  We're really pleased to see Bull Kelp finally make a big comeback off Pt Joe, though Giant Kelp is still few and far between there.  Still, it is a wonderful improvement from the last three years.  Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/xFXWXF7Hg39wAbHT9

Happily, finally, after three years, Bull Kelp is returning to once was a vast Bull and Giant Kelp Forest off Pt Joe.  Hopefully the trend will continue!

   We were visited by a young, curious, but quick and cautious Sea Lion a couple of times on this dive.

We also were visited by a California Sheepshead on this dive.

      Time for our safety stop, then a surface swim back to Greg's boat, as we had wandered a bit....

Since the water was so beautiful and the forecast was good for the next day we decided to dive a second day....To be continued, or, followed by tomorrow's dive blog....

Dives off the Aquarium and inside Lover's Point October 6, 2018

Guy Foster and I dived with Sanctuary last Saturday.  A major wind event was forecast and indeed struck that afternoon with winds near gale force and a very rough Monterey Bay.  Due to the forecast and already somewhat rough conditions both our dives were deep inside Monterey Bay.  Due to my drysuit problems which resulted in my sending it to DUI in San Diego for leak repairs and valve replacements, I was also without my dive camera since I took the opportunity to send it into Backscatter for refurbishment and replacement of the leak detection circuit.....which I drowned on my trip to the Revillagigedos Islands (Socorro) last April, fortunately without totally destroying my camera and lens...

So on these dives I shot some video with Guy's gopro.

We had 20 ft visibility and 56 degrees water temp on our first dive, up to 30 ft of visibility and 54 degrees at our dive further out in the Bay near Lover's Point.

A highlight of our first dive was Guy's finding a really cool flatfish, after much research, I found that there is a bewildering variety of soles, flounders, turbot, Halibut, and plaice, I decided it was a Curlfin Sole.  Below are a couple of Guy's pictures of it.

After several windy days, here's the water temperature graph of a NOAA buoy over the outer Monterey Canyon, it's only measuring down a couple of feet so the temps are significantly warmer than what you'd find at say, 40 to 60 ft....So you can see the significant temperature drop.  Down at 50 ft or so sometimes the temperature will drop as low as 47 degrees from our average of around 52 degrees.  So, clearer water until the sun triggers an algae and plankton bloom, at the cost of bone chilling temperatures if you are diving in a wetsuit...