Jellyfish bloom at BW
- Thread starter kathydee
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OP
70' of vis?! Beautiful!!
vimaldude
Contributor
The nettles are a problem this time of the year. Last year, I did a couple of boat dives in late August and we had to literally poke a few of them out of our faces on the way down!. My son got stung on the face (not seriously). The bloom lasts for a couple of weeks and then they are gone. Has to do with the plankton bloom. Not a good time to dive since the viz is crap also.
The vis was so good on Sunday I got briefly lost! I'm not used to being able to see that much topography. There was a thick jelly infested layer on top that completely dissipated at 30'. The jellies did make the safety stop interesting.
According to my sources at Hopkins, the jellies bloom every year at this time of year. What was different last year was that the wind and the currents brought the jellies over to the Monterey side of the bay from the Santa Cruz side, which is where they normally can be found. So far this year they are nowhere near as thick here in Monterey as they were last year, and I hope it stays that way. What we seem to be seeing right now is sporadic appearances of smallish nettles. In some of those appearances, which nobody seems to be able to predict, they have been fairly thick. Then a few hours later, with a change in tides, they thin out again. So far they haven't kept me out of the water they way they did last September!
If you're a regular Monterey diver and want to help monitor the jelly development, take a look at JellyWatch Home | JellyWatch. This site is run by Steven Haddock, a research biologist with MBARI who has made jellyfish his life's work. There's lots of useful information on his site and he encourages divers to submit reports of jellyfish sightings. As you will quickly see from studying his web page, we are all still learning!
Bruce
If you're a regular Monterey diver and want to help monitor the jelly development, take a look at JellyWatch Home | JellyWatch. This site is run by Steven Haddock, a research biologist with MBARI who has made jellyfish his life's work. There's lots of useful information on his site and he encourages divers to submit reports of jellyfish sightings. As you will quickly see from studying his web page, we are all still learning!
Bruce
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