One of Monterey's fine fleet of dive boats, the Beach Hopper II, opened a charter for today, and I decided it was a perfect time to utilize one of the vouchers I purchased back in February to "get me diving more". We dove a little pinnacle called "White Head" because of its small size and the top being smothered in giant plumose anemones (Metridium farcimen). Although my hopes of sea nettle jelly photo ops was not to be materialized, I told Captain Brian Nelson, "when the dive gives you Metridium, you shoot Metridium".

The second site, "Bottles" near Hopkins Deep Reef, had more rocks to explore and more Metridium than you could shake a stick at. I found this Cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) with only a couple minutes of no deco time left...I could've used a couple more bracketed shots to nail it, but this was the last shot of the day.