brief report: Breakwater Wed 5/18

Had a chance do dive on Wed. Didn't have very high expectations but ended up having an amazing dive.

Fog started lifting just as I was entering the water. Entry was easy with knee high surf. Wind waves and swell made for slightly unpleasant surface swim with the occasional splash over the face but I endured it all the way out to the "11" on the jetty where started to get some sea lions parked on the rocks. Dropped into a pleasant 15-20ft vis and not too much surge at all. Enjoyed numerous perch of every variety as well a numerous opaleye, more than I'd ever seen in a single dive. Looked up at one point into a large school of small blue rockfish swimming and darting in unison. As if on queue the sea lions arrived. First a few curious fly-bys followed by an all out swarm making passes and occasionally blowing a bubble burst with close passes. I knelt in a shallow worm patch and just took it in and deserately tried to catch them on film as they buzzed all around. Spent a good 15 minutes watching them before heading back along the wall. On the way back starting to feel a bit cold I spotted segment of the tell tale rippled smooth body I came to recognize of moray eels on my trips to the caribbean. Huh? that doesn't belong. Investigtion revealed a brown spotted ribbon like fish totally unknown to me but after seeing the head looks just like a wolf eel only smaller with a totally different color/pattern. I strongly suspect it is a juvenile wolf eel and am hoping someone familiar with them can confirm. Filmed him quite a bit and have posted the video for review.
YouTube - ‪juvi wolf eel‬‏

Surfaced to bright sunny sky and vivid blue water. Magical and memorable dive.
BTW not a single nettle seen, they all vanished

That's a juvenile wolf eel, all right! HERE are a couple more images of one, and you can see the well-defined circles along the dorsum, just as your specimen shows. They are more red when they are very young -- yours appears to be well into the transition to gray. Cool find!

Nice video of that juvenile wolf eel!

The viz looked great, too. What was it, 20'?

We see eels sometimes, but I have never seen a wolfie quit that color.

KRL1973:

Had a chance do dive on Wed. Didn't have very high expectations but ended up having an amazing dive.

<snip>

Surfaced to bright sunny sky and vivid blue water. Magical and memorable dive.
BTW not a single nettle seen, they all vanished

Click to expand...

Very nice video. As to the nettles, I suspect you were sheltered by the breakwater. They generally drift along more or less parallel to the shore, and if the current is flowing clockwise around the bay I don't encounter swarms of them until I'm well off the beach or out from the breakwater, typically outside of a line drawn ca. 2/3rds of the way out the Big Pipe to the Metridium Fields to the tip of the breakwater (i.e. when I'm maybe 1/2 out from the '13' to the Barge). However, I'm diving this weekend, and I'll be perfectly happy if they've all disappeared into a parallel universe.

Guy (nettled by nettles)

Yes as good as 20 at times, some spots just 15