Pebble Beach...and a couple o' questions

[ScubaSixString]

Howdy all.

I just got back from a dive off pebble beach. A little surge but nothing much. Aside from sucking my tank dry in record time (could be a by product of having been out of the water for a year/ the spectre of two failed attempts earlier this season) it was a fantastic dive. I have a question or 3. I ran into a fair amount of wildlife. 3 lobsters numerous crabs, a ray of some sort and question number 1.

I realize a picture would help, but my cameras on the blink. This thing was stone gray with yellow and blue splotches, a bulbuous head and an eel like body. A tremendous underbite that made it look like it was frowning. It was laying motionless at 25 ft in some kelp. An eel of some sort, i imagine, but can anyone give me some sort of ID?

question 2: While i was chasing that ray, i saw a tiny white, flounder looking fish (very small...2 inches maybe. It settled in the sand and dissapeared, I think it changed colors to match the background. Any Ideas?

3. While i was trying to coax a lobster from its lair, i would sweep my hands towards it. when the water jet hit it, it would throw up its claws at me. Expected. What was unexpected was a red glowing light from under the rocks. It was daytime, but is this some sort of bioluminesence? I thought something might be reflecting off my gear, but i have nothing red.


Thanks for the help. This was my first dive up here. Much different that florida springs

--Scuba Six

 

[jchaplain]

Howdy all.

I just got back from a dive off pebble beach. A little surge but nothing much. Aside from sucking my tank dry in record time (could be a by product of having been out of the water for a year/ the spectre of two failed attempts earlier this season) it was a fantastic dive. I have a question or 3. I ran into a fair amount of wildlife. 3 lobsters numerous crabs, a ray of some sort and question number 1.

I realize a picture would help, but my cameras on the blink. This thing was stone gray with yellow and blue splotches, a bulbuous head and an eel like body. A tremendous underbite that made it look like it was frowning. It was laying motionless at 25 ft in some kelp. An eel of some sort, i imagine, but can anyone give me some sort of ID?

question 2: While i was chasing that ray, i saw a tiny white, flounder looking fish (very small...2 inches maybe. It settled in the sand and dissapeared, I think it changed colors to match the background. Any Ideas?

3. While i was trying to coax a lobster from its lair, i would sweep my hands towards it. when the water jet hit it, it would throw up its claws at me. Expected. What was unexpected was a red glowing light from under the rocks. It was daytime, but is this some sort of bioluminesence? I thought something might be reflecting off my gear, but i have nothing red.


Thanks for the help. This was my first dive up here. Much different that florida springs

--Scuba Six

1) You may have seen a conger eel? http://www.eastcoastcharters.co.uk/html/conga_eel.html

2) Probably was a baby flounder and it buried itself under the soft silty sand.

3) Must have been the lobsters taillight? There is no bioluminecense that I've heard of that would shine bright red like a light during the day. Bioluminecense is usually pretty faint and can only be seen at night.

John C.

 

[ScubaSixString]

1) You may have seen a conger eel? http://www.eastcoastcharters.co.uk/html/conga_eel.html

2) Probably was a baby flounder and it buried itself under the soft silty sand.

3) Must have been the lobsters taillight? There is no bioluminecense that I've heard of that would shine bright red like a light during the day. Bioluminecense is usually pretty faint and can only be seen at night.

John C.

John,

Thanks for the quick response. Not a conger eel. the front part of it was huge...then tapered down into and eel like tail.

Lobster tail light? That would explain the beep beep beep i heard when it backed up. I owe my dive computer an apology

Hell.... i could've been seeing things.... I really need to dive more

Thanks


--Scuba Six

 

[Cecil]

Maybe an Ocean Pout.

 

[ScubaSixString]

Maybe an Ocean Pout.

Very well might have been. This thing looked like stone. But the shape is about right....

 

[ScubaSixString]

Doing some research, this thing was probably a pout. But it wasnt yellow (unless the yellow in my "color correcting" mask muted that. ) and the head looked bigger....but the face was almost dead on.