Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[elgoog]

Thursday 2/9 - 50ft viz with insanely blue water at the Breakwater. One of the most amazing dives I've done - harbor seals kept us company for a long time and the water was filled with at least a dozen different types of jellies (many of which I'd never seen before) and a couple of looong salp chains. Surface was like a pond.
Friday 2/10 - 10-15ft viz at Pt Lobos. Marine Mammal Center had released an elephant seal in the cove while we were in the water - if anyone's going there this weekend, keep an eye out for her.

 

[Default]

Had a couple of nice dives at Lovers today. Some surge, but not too bad. Vis ok further out and below 30ft.

There were a TON of weird jelly-like creatures in the water that I have never seen before. They're these semitranslucent white tubes, between 2-15in long, with one rounded end and one flattened end with a circular hole. Kind of look like fingers. Their consistency is pretty hard, they're not very squishy at all. But you can bend them somewhat. We must have seen tens of thousands of these things all over the place. Can anyone identify them?

There were a lot of other interesting jellies as well...

 

[uspap]

It sounds like you are talking about a Thety's. It's a Salp. Did it look like this?
South Monastery 486-487 046

 

[Default]

No. Very much like a tube. Think a piece of garden hose cut to 10" with one end rounded off.Seemingly hollow inside, I guess that's what the hole at the one end was for.

 

[uspap]

These? Wish you had a picture. I plan to get out Monday. Hopefully they are still there.
North Monastery 257 094

 

[Default]

No. Found them though: Port Phillip Bay Taxonomy Toolkit

 

[uspap]

I never knew that type of Salp existed. Now I definitely have to get out there.

 

[sea_otter]

Two nice dives today on the Escapade!

The weather wasn't going to let us go to Carmel, so we stayed in the bay and stopped at Aumentos for dive one, then went over the Shale Island for a second.

Decent amount of swell at Aumentos and the top few feet of the water were quite green. It opened up below though for a some nice vis, around 25'. I saw two wolf eels, tons of nudis, big cabazon and lingcod, and lots of smaller rockfish. There was quite a bit of surge and the metridiums had curled up to hide. The tube-like salp things were everywhere (possible id as pyrosome - unconfirmed). The waves picked up while we were below, and the boat was rocking as we climbed the ladder!

Runtime: 62 min
Max Depth: 77 ft
Temperature: 54 F

We went looking for something more sheltered and found some bluer water at Shale Island. The top of the water here was nice and clear, and we could see jellyfish and saps from the boat. Lots of critters in the nooks and crannies here, and we even saw a leopard shark! Another team ran into a gray whale underwater - super jealous. Even more jellies here, making our 20' stop more interesting than a lot of dives! Very cool stuff. Visibility was probably 30' near the surface. A bit stirred up in a lot of places below but around 10-20'.

Runtime: 50 min
Max Depth: 57 ft
Temperature: 54 F

Hopefully will have some pictures of those silly salp things once my buddy uploads them. They are smaller than Thetys but I had not seen them before. Saw an anemone eating one too - funny sight.

 

[3D diver]

Fun dive at Lobos today---Hole in the Wall & Lone Metridium

Bottom time: 52 min.
Max Depth: 68 ft.
Visibility: 30-40+ feet, milky
Water Temperature: 55-58.6F
Surface state: High tide, bit of a swell coming straight into cove, very choppy in outer part of Whaler's.

We dropped a little early 'cause of the surface chop, but still reached Hole In the Wall in about 14 minutes, so pressed on to Lone Metridium. The water was milky. I could see kelp all the way to the surface from 51 feet, but the surface itself wasn't clear. Not a lot of fish to see---1 Lingcod, two Sheephead encounters, and a few other rockfish. Lone Metridium was just a stalk---the flowery head was retracted. Wandered back and surfaced right near the boat ramp! High tide made entries and exits a lot easier than last Sunday.

 

[Mark413]

Nice Dive at Eric's Pinnacle, there were a ton of lingcpd, salps everywhere, and humpback whales that I didn't see but swam right above me, under the boat. Bummed i missed the whales.
Viz 20' at 55' depth, 10-15' at 20' depth.
Didn't get the temp.
There was too much swell to go futher, the boat was being rolled by 6 footers.

Second dive at Mcabee, viz was a bit worse 15-20' at 45' depth and worse the shallower we got.