9am low tide slack according to the Peirce charts. New dive site! Met up with Kim and Tom on my day off to go check out the pier. Entry is nice and easy, so we wandered down to the water and were instantly greated by a dense cloud of small sea gooseberries. We surface swam over to the pier and before we even submerged, Kim spotted a Lion's Mane jelly. We descended into mediocre viz and headed out under the pier. The bottom is silty and littered with various barrels and other structures that were presumably part of experiments at some time. At the base of the pilings, we found massive sea stars as big as dinner plates. On the pilings themselves, there were anemones, hydroids, and tunicates. As the dive went on, some current started to pick up across the pier. I wished I had some video lights because it would have been cool to see the kelp rippling in the current and the sea gooseberries ripping by. I was able to avoid the current by heading up to the high wall, which was absolutely covered in huge, wide open frilled anemones. At one point, we spotted a lion's mane and Tom drifted with it in the current, so I followed. I made my way back to the upper wall while Tom cruised the bottom. Towards the end of the dive, I spotted a large female lumpfish through the kelp. I gave chase, but she swam around a piling and lost me as I couldn't make good headway in the current. This was an interesting dive, but it may have been bested by our delicious lunch at The Friendly Toast. Another awesome dive day!
