There be kelp here!

[MaxBottomtime]

Hawthorne Reef is a rocky reef offshore from Pt. Vicente filled with marine life. Fish, sponges, nudibranchs, gorgonians and many other animals abound. The only negative to Hawthorne Reef is boat traffic. When I dive here I usually stay within sight of the anchor. Making a surface swim at Hawthorne Reef could be quite hazardous. I've always felt that the one factor that would make it the perfect dive site would be kelp. Well, sometimes you get your wish.
The reef is now covered with tall, healthy kelp that reaches the surface. The visibility was good enough to see the boat from thirty feet, which allowed us to ascend in the kelp. There were a few tiny nudibranchs, flatworms and skeleton shrimp on the fronds to keep us busy.
The reef itself was devoid of the nudibranchs I'm used to seeing here. Maybe it's the time of year, but they seem to be in dwindling numbers everywhere. The fish, however were more than willing to pose for us.

Remnants of an old fishing net are still found here.

Juvenile Blacksmiths

Olive rockfish

Halfmoon

Sand bass

Treefish

Rainbow seaperch

Some kelp trying to reach the surface the wrong way

Felimida macfarlandi


We motored to Golf Ball Reef in search of sand critters. Visibility was down considerably from yesterday but we were able to find sand. Lots of sand.

Serpent star

Windmill worm

Hermet crab

One spot fringehead

Tiny red octopus

 

[drbill]

Good to see the kelp somewhere!

That uprooted kelp holdfast reminds me of research I did between 1969 and 1978 where we sampled drifting kelp rafts in the open ocean to see what critters might be transported from one location to another. It proved to be a very effective dispersal mechanism, especially for inverts without a pelagic larval stage, and often introduced reproductive adults sometimes in large numbers making colonization very likely.

 

[Divebum Don]

Love the J B's and Scally's!! Thanks Phil, good to see the kelp report and your cool new cover pic!

 

[Keith.M]

In the picture with the Juvenile Blacksmiths, there is a small fish to the left.

Is that a Garibaldi?

They seemed to be everywhere in the dive park on Catalina.

 

[keithbt]

In the picture with the Juvenile Blacksmiths, there is a small fish to the left.

Is that a Garibaldi?

They seemed to be everywhere in the dive park on Catalina.

Blue Banded Gobi....Its really cool when they cover whole rocks!

Garabaldi are the bright orange fish about 6-9"....and juvenile Garabaldis are smaller, orange with blue bright spots...I'm sure Phil will throw up some picture to explain better.

 

[Keith.M]

Blue Banded Gobi....Its really cool when they cover whole rocks!

Thank you. Yes, I saw some of those!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Blue Banded Gobi....Its really cool when they cover whole rocks!

Garabaldi are the bright orange fish about 6-9"....and juvenile Garabaldis are smaller, orange with blue bright spots...I'm sure Phil will throw up some picture to explain better.

At your service!

Blue Banded Gobi

Zebra Gobi

Garibaldi

 

[Keith.M]

Blue Banded Gobi....Its really cool when they cover whole rocks!

Garabaldi are the bright orange fish about 6-9"....and juvenile Garabaldis are smaller, orange with blue bright spots...I'm sure Phil will throw up some picture to explain better.

HAHAHA... Yes, I know what a Garibaldi is and also the smaller spotted juveniles. But when you see the juveniles, they always seem to be a couple of inches at least which would indicate some age past hatching from an egg. With the colors matching, I was curious if this was a stage very close after hatching. And since as you said, they sometimes covered whole rocks, which I observed, I thought it was possible they had just recently hatched.

I happen to like this shot... It just happened to get in the frame of what I was taking a picture of.



And a juvenile...

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Not quite orange yet

 

[Keith.M]

Not quite hatched either it looks like.