Re-eely only happens once.

[Merry]

Last weekend, Phil and I saw a moray eel on each dive; one was at Honeymoon Cove and one was inside the crane off Haggarty's. This never happens to us! Vis off PV seems to be clearing up a bit.

Honeymoon Cove



Gymnothorax mordax, California moray eel #1


Pycnopodia helianthoides, Sunflower star


Acarnus erithacus, Red volcano sponge


Okenia rosacea, Hopkin's Rose nudibranch


Pandalus stenolepis Roughpatch shrimp



At Haggarty's crane, moray eel #2



Neoclinus stephensae, Yellowfin fringehead with the girth of a pencil.






Ophiodon elongatus, Lingcod from "The" Barge

 

[ScubaNoey]

Amazing photos like usual. Thank you!!

 

[diver 86]

Really cool pics!

 

[TSandM]

Oh, the fringehead pictures are fabulous! But I also like the red volcano sponge. I'm weird. I like to look at sponges and then come home and try to look them up to see what they are.

 

[deeper thoughts]

beautiful

 

[drbill]

Merry... I've been wondering about the moray population this year. I've been seeing more of the really young 'uns this summer. If scientists are correct in assuming the waters in SoCal aren't warm enough for them to reproduce, I assume the extremely warm water from last year allowed an unusually high influx of larvae that settled here. Another option is that the warm water last Aug and Sept exceeded their minimum reproductive temperature and even our local eels got to do "the wild thing."

 

[Merry]

Lynne, I love sponges and find they're harder to get a decent photo of than fish!

Dr. Bill, that's good news. About how large are the young morays?

 

[drbill]

Some of the young morays I've seen in the dive park at night are about the diameter of my finger. Usually I just see the head sticking up out of the rocks until I point my video lights in its direction. At other times I just see the tiny body and tail slither past as I film something else.

 

[Tigerman]

Thats a lot of shrimp in there with the moray