Rockfish: Rockfish are a type of fish that like to live in kelp forests. They are not too large and eat other smaller fish, crustaceans, and plankton. They can have colors from dark green to bright orange, and have large eyes and mouths. They have big spines on their fins and bony plates on the head.
Bat Star: Bat stars are starfish that comes in many colors like red, orange, green, pink, etc. It has webbing between its five arms, making it look a bit chunkier than other stars. These would be everywhere all over the rocks while diving in monterey.
Sculpin: sculpin are a type of fish that like to lie on the bottom. They are fairly common but have colors that match the seafloor and rocks. They are fairly small and often found in tidepools as well. Some of them have small spines.
Sanddab: Sanddabs are fairly small flatfishes that like to hide in the sand. During the dives, they would always be shuffling on the floor and burying themselves in sand.
Salp: Salps are strange organisms that look like clear plastic bags with organs inside them. It basically does nothing but filter feed and pump water through itself, and one of these were floating around during my first dive.
Dungeness Crab: these crabs were scuttling around everywhere. They are fairly large but people enjoy eating them very much.
Sea Urchins: Sea urchins are everywhere in kelp forests, and are becoming a problem. They reproduce super fast and eat kelp rapidly, as well as their main predator, the sea otter, being hunted by humans.
However, there is something can happen to help. Many different organizations take volunteers on dives to get rid of urchins in kelp forests and help make these beautiful ecosystems last longer.
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