Diving with the Cypress Sea

Went diving with my awsome dive buddy Kerrie on Saturday. She booked us for three dives on the Cypress Sea, a dive charter out of San Jose. The crew was terrific. "Captain Phil" was very fun and interactive. He made everyone laugh and ease up immediately and was also clearly knowledgable about the dive locations and diving in general.

The water was pretty calm, so we went to three terrific dive sites. The first was about 50-120ft atol just outside of Pt. Lobos, though I can't remember the name. So pretty! Beautiful California Hydrocorals, brittle stars, loads of anemone, a giant spider crab, decorator crabs, comb jellies, hundreds of "sea lemon" nudibranchs and their eggs - because their my favorite, here's an excerpt from the Monterey Aquarium about them:
"A sea lemon, like all nudibranchs, can produce both sperm and eggs (it’s hermaphroditic). Since nudibranchs live only about one year, the ability to mate with any other nudibranch increases their chances of reproducing. Females lay circular, light yellow ribbons containing as many as 2,000,000 eggs; only 99% of the resulting larvae survive. In Monterey Bay, the spawning season is from November to March

Sea lemons breathe through the rosette of gills on their back. Nudibranchs that have this arrangement of gills are in a family called dorids.

Because the neurons of sea lemons are larger and easier to access than human neurons, researchers find sea lemons useful in their studies of nerve cells. In addition, the abundance of sea lemons makes their collection for research feasible."

There was also a ton of jelly fish in the water at this site. Becuase I was unable to get my camera to work for this trip (sob!), here is a youtube video of a "Fried Egg" jellyfish, like several of those that we saw:


The second site was the "Outer Butterfly" in front of Carmel Beach. So many of the pink anemones, sun stars, spot prawns, porecelein crabs, sea cucumbers, needle fish, everything! Really beautiful and the boat dropped us right on the spot.

The third site was "Fire Rock" closer in to Monterey. This site had an excellent combination of shallow and deep rocks, crevices, and pinnacles and "Captain Phil" had us exactly in divers paradise. I had a new dive buddy for the third dive and he was great. We both dropped down to about 60 feet and gradually worked our way up and around the first pinnacle to just explore and take our time. Another great dive!

Here is someone's great video of Outer Butterfly:


From the boat on the return to Monterey, we were able to watch a pod of what I think were Risso's Dolphins. Here is the description of the Risso's Dolphin from the NOAA website:
Risso's dolphins, sometimes called "gray dolphins," have a robust body with a narrow tailstock. These medium sized cetaceans can reach lengths of approximately 8.5-13 feet (2.6-4 m) and weigh 660-1,100 pounds (300-500 kg). Males and females are usually about the same size. They have a bulbous head with a vertical crease, and an indistinguishable beak. They have a tall, "falcate", sickle-shaped dorsal fin located mid-way down the back. Calves have a dark cape and saddle, with little or no scarring on their body. As Risso's dolphins age, their coloration lightens from black, dark gray or brown to pale gray or almost white. Their bodies are usually heavily scarred, with scratches from teeth raking between dolphins, as well as circular markings from their prey (e.g., squid), cookie-cutter sharks (Isistius brasiliensis), and lampreys. Mature adults swimming just under the water's surface appear white."

Here's another "representative" youtube video taken of a pod of Risso's dolphins off of the Channel Islands and is more or less what we saw. They are pretty big animals. The pod we saw was probably a little larger than this:
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My Pinnacles dry suit was also in perfect working order and all my gear treated me very well. I was especially pleased to make all three dives without being a frozen popsicle, as were most of the other women on the boat. It was a nice change.

Up next? Lake Tahoe with Dive N Trips!!