The Return of Diver Kevin

[MaxBottomtime]

After six months of pain, surgery, healing and drying out, Kevin Lee returned to the aquatic world today. Fortunately he brought good conditions with him.
We took him to the reef off Resort Point where I pointed out the moray eel, yellow-faced garibaldi and east wall. After showing Kevin a tiny nudibranch I floated a few feet above him and looked for more. Suddenly a second eel stuck his head out of its den. This one is much larger than the one we've been visiting. In the past month I have doubled the number of moray eels I've seen around the peninsula from two to four.
Visibility was twenty feet or more, with 53° water. Our second dive was at nearby Merry's Reef, where the visibility increased dramatically despite the temperature rising ten degrees. I've never seen such an increase in less than two hours. Visibility was so nice that we could easily see the boat ladder from fifty feet below.
We had a harbor seal buzz us several times, but never when we had the cameras ready. Kevin followed a Torpedo ray over the sand. I'm sure he had a pretty good day for his long awaited return.

Sunflower star trying to steal a mackerel from a lobster trap

 

[drbill]

GREAT to see Kevin back in the water. Noticed you found the unusual colored garibaldi again, too.

 

[thez_yo]

Wow those are great pictures!!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

It's a good thing they're territorial.
I told Kevin before getting in the water that I would show him the eel and garibaldi. I'm sure he got some photos to put mine to shame.

 

[blue steal]

Thanks for posting, great stuff. Glad to see the VIS was good for you guys.

 

[gert7to3]

So the yellow faced garibaldi is not a phase or subspecies, but an oddity?

In the 18th frame down/8th frame up, it looked like there were three yellow/cream colored nudis feeding on a sponge. It also looked like a bunch of baby starfish were also on that sponge.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Funny story about that. Once we hit the water we went in different directions. I saw the three San Diego dorids eating the brown sponge and took a couple shots. After we surfaced I looked at Merry's camera and she had also shot them. Last night Kevin posted his pictures and he also shot them.
I heard back from three fish experts and none of them had ever seen a garibaldi with that color mutation.

 

[drbill]

I heard back from three fish experts and none of them had ever seen a garibaldi with that color mutation.

I'm not surprised. I've seen patches or blotches of color like that but never so defined as the one you've shot. Let's see... how much of that Fukushima radiation has entered our waters by now?