Blurry Water at Monastery!

[ScubaDeniz]

Okay so today (5/20/06) I went diving at Monastery, which is off of hwy 1 right after Monterey. Anyways I'm getting ready to get in, conditions are great, I go to put sea drops in my mask, wash it out and get in the water with my buddy. 4 of us are diving and I look underwater and the water is blurry like an oily substance. So I figure I didn't wash out my mask well enough, so I clear it with some water, doesn't work, do it again, doesn't work. So I don't want my buddies to think im crazy, but I ask em anyways and they agreed that the water was blurry. As we went down the blurry went away and it was clear, but now I really want to know what it was. So if anyone has any ideas, or has had this happen at another dive site or knows anything let me know I'm very curious, and hopefully it's not harmfull! :eyecrazy:

 

[dannobee]

That's called a halocline. It's caused by fresh water "floating" on top of salt water. The recent rain and runoff caused it. Next time bring a camera, it's not very common.

 

[mweitz]

Yep, heavy Halocline at Lobos on Sat as well. I kept telling my buddy he was just narced

 

[Jorbar1551]

It might have been the uprising. All of the cold water from the deep is rising and mixing with the warm(not so) water on top.

I was at north monastery from 9 to 2. The first dive was perfect vis, about 40 feet. The second dive was a little blurry, but it was still awesome.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I don't think we have had enough rain for a halocline. You can get the same effect at
a thermocline, and that's much more likely.

 

[dannobee]

I don't think we have had enough rain for a halocline. You can get the same effect at
a thermocline, and that's much more likely.

Coming back from Lobos Rocks on Saturday we noticed some BIG brown silty trails of runoff going out to about a half a mile from shore in a few spots. And it was raining pretty good on Friday coming back from Point Lobos. There was probably more rain than we thought.

 

[renpirate]

I noticed the same effect at the Breakwater on Sunday close to the wall past the iron gate. The strange thing is that I didn't notice a temperature change, which is also usally characteristic in my experience.