Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[JellyMan777]

Date: 3/18
Site: Aquarium Wall/Hopkins (via McAbee Beach)
Depth: 64fsw
Temp: 52F
Vis: 10-20ft (20ft in shallows)
Comment: A prominent biological layer present below 20fsw limited visibility; however, the vis is fairly good in the shallows. Nearer the shore, water was crystal clear. Large schools of perch, rockfish, and senoritas present.

Date: 3/18
Site: McAbee Pinnacle (via McAbee Beach)
Depth: 62fsw
Temp: 55deg
Vis: 20-30ft in shallows
Comment: Visibility much improved in the shallows during the latter part of the day. Ran into an extraordinarily large school of senoritas making their way up the peninsula (consisting of several hundred individuals).

 

[uspap]

Did two at Breakwater. Pretty rough. Water was above my knees at steps. Some divers had trouble getting out of the water due to wave action. Vis first dive along wall was 15+. Coming back in around the 5 vis dropped to less than 5 in spots. Second dive was kelp and vis was very poor and the waves were pumping pretty good. Navigated back to wall and it was less than 10ft vis. 56 degrees.

 

[JellyMan777]

Date: 4/1
Site: Breakwater
Depth: 38fsw
Temp: 54-55F
Vis: 5-10ft
Comment: Training dives. Visibility was pretty bad. I can't really comment on marine life since I was drilling the entire time and not really there to sight-see. The swell increased significantly following my second dive at 2-4pm. Notable thermocline at 30ft probably indicates an upwelling in progress.

 

[chris_the_brit]

Point Lobos this morning had a fairly big swell, but it looked OK. We dropped into about 30 feet depth with 1-2 foot vis. Took a few minutes to find each other, re-orientate, and confirm we really wanted to do this. Glad we did, because it got better. Made it out to lone metridium which was fully open. Saw a few kelp greenling, a big sheephead and a school of tubesnout, as well as some nice nudibranchs.
Vis was generally 5 feet, with up to 15 below 50 fsw. Surge was very strong.
Max depth 69 fsw. 52F. Challenging but worth the effort. We didn't do a second dive.

 

[sea_otter]

Really really glad I made the trip to Lobos today despite mediocre conditions reports.

We did two dives out to Hole in the Wall and Lone Metridium. It was a bit murky in the shallows for the first dive, but it was beautiful below around 50 feet! Probably 20-25' vis. The vis improved throughout the day, and the second dive was close to 30' at depth and 15' in the shallows.

Saw a sunflower star near HITW reef! <3 Nudis everywhere, lingcod, various rockfish, and big schools of little translucent fishies I cannot identify.

Dive 1: Max depth 68 feet, a bit beyond HITW, 54 min bottom time
Dive 2: Max depth 69 feet, Lone Metridium, 70 min bottom time
Low temperature 50 degrees.

Amazing day!!

 

[chris_the_brit]

@sea_otter that's awesome, I'm so jealous. What a difference a day can make!

 

[Mark413]

Did two dives Sunday 4/9, Eric's Pinnacle and the inlets. Viz was OK, I'd say 15-20' but the pinnacle was bright and really interesting. I saw a couple white nudibranchs with black spots (a big, 3" one and a small 1" one) right next to each other, a small abalone, and a couple of scallops, then the normal distribution of fish. Very low kelp cover, and there were some kelp that were in the process of being detached from their holdfasts by urchin.

Dive 1: Max Depth 55ft, 55 min. Eric's Pinnacle, ~15-20' viz, 53 deg.
Dive 2: Max Depth 55ft, 40 min, The Inlets, ~15' viz, 52 deg.

 

[Rob Wilks]

Well... If it's inded true Pycnopodia are coming back around, Urchins won't stand much of a chance. Sunflower stars love to eat those kelp killers. Sea_otter, did you happen to get a pic of sunflower star you saw? Glad to hear you had such a good day of diving

 

[sea_otter]

Sea_otter, did you happen to get a pic of sunflower star you saw? Glad to hear you had such a good day of diving

Nope, we were both diving without camera. And if I had one I probably would have been too focused on taking nudibranch pictures and wouldn't have spotted it at all... ;-)

Someone had posted video of one a month or two ago at Monastery, but this was the first one I've seen at Lobos. I'm hopeful!!

 

[JellyMan777]

Just to chime in, I ran across a three juvenile sunstars (two <2in and one <12in in diameter) at the McAbee Pinnacle last September. (Noted them in my dive log.) Haven't seen any since, but I have noticed that the kelp is doing better at the aquarium and the urchin population there seems to be lower. These two factors could be an indication that there are at least a small surviving sunstar population in the area.

I emailed MBARI about the expected recovery period for the sunstar populations, but I never received a response. The wasting disease decimated the species and it would be useful to understand if we are looking at years or decades before the region returns to normal.