About the dive site.
Metridium fields are one of the strange worlds of the Pacific Northwest. The south of Monterey Bay offers several dives sites where divers will enjoy a flight over these "Brussels sprouts" or "mushrooms" covered worlds. This video presents one of these sites close to Hopkins Marine Station (University of Stanford) in Pacific Grove. This is an easy boat dive, close to the port of Monterey and in a relatively well protected area. Visibility can be very limited but with the combination of rocks, sandy areas and a nearby kelp forest, all kinds of encounters are possible from tiny nudibranchs to sea lions. Monterey Bay has a great variety of marine life from phytoplankton to whales. All of these organisms greatly benefit from the presence of the underwater equivalent of Grand Canyon which brings back to the surface deep and cold nutrient-rich waters, essential for sustaining an intense marine life.

Due to an easy direct access to abyssal depths, the presence of wetlands, sandy bottoms and rocky shores, this ecologically complex area which is part of one of the biggest marine sanctuary in the world is highly studied. 19 research institutes are carrying some research in the bay on various disciplines such as underwater robotics, surface and submerged autonomous observatories, deep benthic and pelagic ecology, biogeochemical fluxes, birds and marine mammals study, microbiology...

About me.
( Lionel Pawlowski - lionel.pawlowski a-t gmail.com)
When I am not working for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute where I develop mathematical models to understand how climate change may affect the marine ecosystems of the West Coast, you'll probably find me somewhere underwater taking pictures or filming. I learnt diving in 1989 in the temperate waters of the Mediterranean sea. I visited many temperate and tropical seas around the world and logged more than 650 dives. Despite the cold temperatures of the local waters, I love diving in Central California for the diversity of the dive sites and the pleasure of exploring a completely different world.

Wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) is generally hard to find, hiding inside crevices in rocks and shy to the divers. This one was moving from crevices to crevices and was apparently about 4-5 ft long.

Cabezons (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) are often hard to see with their own camouflage despite a massive head with two big eyes. Sometimes you'll see a male guarding eggs. Like lingcods, they are great subjects for photographers.

Copper rockfishes (Sebastes caurinus) can be seen in most dive sites.

Hopkins Deep has a nearby kelp forest. It's not uncommon to see some of the kelp critters such as this kelp crab (Pugettia producta) in the shallowest parts of the reef. You can often see these crabs, at the bottom, climbing the kelp and even walking at the surface on the canopy !

Sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) has 5 to 24 arms and can have a diameter of 39 inches. If you find this animal on the sand, you may notice how fast it can move, over 40 inches per minute.

Sandflat elbow crabs (Heterocrypta occidentalis) are one of the many crustaceans of this site. This crab has a strange triangular shape with very long arms. Most of the time you'll find it half burried in the sand.

Hopkin deeps has various species of anemones. This one is a fish-eating urticina (Urticina piscivora) .

Painted Greenlings (Oxylebius pictus) have sometimes the colors of their surrounding environment making them hard to notice. They rely on their camouflage so divers can approach them quite closely.

Never forget to keep an eye on what's going on over your head ! California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are frequent visitors on this site and you may enjoy a safety stop with them.

And of course, Metridium, the "giant plumose anemone" (Metridium giganteum) which can be 3 ft long. At Hopkins Deep, most metridiums are over 12 inches long. Some walls are highly covered by colonies of this anemone. You'll find the metridiums in parts of the reef mostly deeper than 50ft .