Morro Bay Muck Diving, Day Two

[MaxBottomtime]

We awoke to light rain in Morro Bay this morning, but it cleared out by 6:30 and turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. We rushed over to the North T-Pier to make an early morning dip in the pond. High tide did not bring the clearer water I had hoped for, but it did bring in 50° water, down five degrees from yesterday.
Kevin lead us to the pilings where he discovered three new nudis yesterday. I managed to get a few shots of one of them, Adalaria jannae but mangled the others. I hit the delete button a lot today.
Visibility was down to about five feet, but we made the best of it and stayed for well over an hour. Kevin made another two hour dive. Our deepest depth was twenty feet.
Photos at
Morro Bay Muck Diving, Day Two

 

[FrankPro1]

What is the orange nudibranch species in 16&17 of the series? Wonderful pose on 17. How large were the Adalaria jannae?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

What is the orange nudibranch species in 16&17 of the series?

Triopha maculata. I see them often in sandy areas, especially at Vet's.

How large were the Adalaria jannae?

I could barely see them. I didn't even know there were nudis in the frame until after I took the shot and zoomed in. There were more of them to the left of the frame, plus another nudibranch that I didn't get a good shot of, but Merry saw in the corner of one of her shots. I think she will actually post something later.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Deleted

 

[TSandM]

Wow - interesting that they were so small. We found them on bryozoans on red kelp up at the north end of Vancouver Island, but they were one to two inches long. I was SURE I had found the Onchidoris, until my photographer friend did some research with his pictures and turned up the reference to the Adalaria.

 

[FrankPro1]

Excellent shots Merry! What's the critter in the fifth shot? Kind of looks like a cup coral or anemone.

The sixth shot is excellent. The Polycera atra really pops off that red background.

Never heard of a hagfish fishery. Do humans consume them? Or use their slime for other purposes?

 

[Merry]

Thank you, Frank. I have some info on the hagfish that I'll include in my post in a day or so.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Kevin, Merry and I came home from Morro Bay with great new memories and some nice photos...some nicer than others. Kevin's images blow mine out of the shallow, murky water. The first 61 images at Latest SoCal Dives - Kevin Lee's Photos | SmugMug are from our trip. If your brain can handle any more, check out more of Kevin's work. I need to occupy a camera store now for a better lens.
We are the 99%
(3 of 297 divers who love to make these dives)

 

[FrankPro1]

I need to occupy a camera store now for a better lens.
We are the 99%
(3 of 297 divers who love to make these dive)

 

[TSandM]

Oh, man, there are some mind-blowing shots there!

I think I have to put Morro Bay on the bucket list. It's clearly a wonderful place for slug nuts.