Nice image. Have the prevailing water temps there been warmer or colder than usual?
Here on the West Coast, we're seeing abnormally low water temps (after unseasonally high ones last winter) and that has changed the complexion of our underwater habitats. For example, kelp is thriving due to the low temps (and corresponding high nutrients) when it should be sloughing off dead blades and fronds.
Are there any microhabitat differences at this particular site vs at those near it you dive frequently?
Interesting questions Bill. The bottom water has been much colder than normal....75 degrees will most likely be the highest it gets...I would normally be diving a skin right now. Last year, at the same time, the bottom temp was roughly 10 degrees warmer.
The location is right on the edge of a valley that runs out to the continental shelf.
This is not a spot frequented by divers..the ledge near it has around 5 - 8 ft of vertical relief, and gets lots of divers. This location is more than 100 yards away, and is missing the vertical stuff, and there is no direct connection. Both the fish diversity and population was very different. Here, scorpion fish were everywhere...stopped taking pictures of them after a while:
We don't have a lot of Moray's.. but here they were everywhere.
There was also a far greater density of fish.. where we might see 3 or 4, there would be dozens of Cardinal fish
Bet I saw 5 basket starfish on that dive:
The other reef near it has lots of cleaner shimp.. but here, angel fish (big ones) were doing the cleaning on amberjack...
Most of the fish were not afraid of divers... except the octo's... they would hide as soon as they saw you (which is not the case normally).
I began to wonder if the other reefs that people dive on are being changed by the presence of humans, and this reef is what they should look like... but how could we change the moray population (for example)?
