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FALL 2016
DIVE SLATE
KELP PADDIES
kelp. The adult form of this rockfish is found in very
deep water from 700 to 1,500 feet. Drifting kelp may
also be an important habitat for the juvenile stage of
the California yellowtail, halfmoon and other species
of fishes. Marine scientists sampling kelp paddies
have found more than 25 different species of fishes
amid kelp paddies, with most of the species consisting
entirely of juveniles.
You never know what you are going to see under the
kelp; populations vary from year to year and area to area.
An area of 65°F water may have a completely different
set of animals than an area of 72°F water just five miles
away. That’s what makes kelp paddies so interesting.
The recent warm years have brought smooth
hammerhead sharks, blue marlin, bluefin tuna, false
orcas and many other species that were rare in
previous years. Until the summer of 2014, for example,
wahoo had never been documented in California
waters, but in the strong 2015 El Niño event, more
than 1,000 wahoo were caught in California waters by
sport fishermen.
MOLA MOLA
Kelp paddies are absolutely the best place to find
Mola
mola
. Molas, which come to the drifting kelp to be
cleaned by the halfmoon fish, are loaded with parasites,
both externally and internally. We saw one mola that
was particularly undisturbed by diver presence and were
able to pull out parasitic copepods deeply embedded in
its skin. The fish actually seemed to enjoy the encounter.
It is not unusual to see up to three molas on a drifting
kelp. My personal record from a few years ago was 50
adult molas on a single kelp paddy. They are generally
wary of photographers approaching them at the surface
or from underwater. A diver in a black wetsuit looks like a
sea lion to the mola. I have seen sea lions tear apart molas,
so it is important to approach slowly and not aggressively.
Some molas may not care much about an approaching
diver, but it is more common for them to swim away.