Monastery Beach, CA.  Infamously known as “mortuary beach,” Monastery features a very steep beach slope.  You can be up to your neck in water after only two steps in.  On rough days there is a lot of force behind the waves, which can thrust divers out of the water and tire out inexperienced swimmers.  Regardless, it is still one of the best dive sites in the Monterey area.

Figure 1.   Monastery Beach in Carmel, CA.  The beach features rocky reefs at each end for plenty of amazing photo opportunities.

In this post, I thought it would be fun to share some of the rockfish (Family Sebastidae) that I see on my dives there.  In the past year I have dove Monastery Beach so frequently that I now recognize some individuals from dive to dive.  Unique characteristics like bite marks, personal coloration, and territories help distinguish individual fish from one another.  Not all species of rockfish will be represented, just the ones that I have pictures for.

Figure 2.  Adult Vermilion rockfish

Figure 3.  Juvenile vermilion rockfish

Vermilion rockfish make great subjects for photos.  The adults we see are larger than most other rockfish at the reef.  As adults they display a vibrant orange color when in the light.  Due to the natural absorption of colors by water, they appear to be much darker and closely blend in with the reef without lights.  Juveniles have a darker, more cryptic coloration.

Figure 4.  Black and yellow rockfish

Black and yellow rockfish are another species common around the Monterey Bay.  This benthic species is almost always stationary and has bright yellow markings along its body.

Figure 5.  Gopher rockfish

Similar to the Black and yellow rockfish is the Gopher rockfish.  Instead of a black and yellow coloration, the Gopher is brown and white.  Gopher rockfish are also rarely seen moving.  Black and yellow and Gopher rockfish utilize reef space similarly, but are often stratified by depth; black and yellows are found shallower, while gophers are deeper.

On a recent dive, I watched as a Gopher rockfish slowly stalked a fast swimming sculpin.  In the end, the sculpin’s small size and cryptic coloration allowed it to escape the Gopher rockfish.

Figure 6.  Copper rockfish

Now you are looking at a Copper rockfish.  This species is easily identified by its pronounced lateral line which runs about half its body length.  Overall, this species has been less common than the others during our dives at Monastery Beach, although this individual is a resident that we encounter many days.

Figure 7.  Blue rockfish

The Blue rockfish differs from the previous fish in that it is much more frequently observed swimming around the water column.  They often school within kelp forests, although I have seen them swimming from much deeper water without any kelp.

Figure 8.  Kelp rockfish

Last, we have none other than the Kelp rockfish, the focal species of my undergraduate research!  There is incredible variability in the color of Kelp rockfish; like Figure 8, some are very lightly colored with speckles.  Others are much darker, almost black.  Kelp rockfish are a shallow rocky reef fish.  They rest nearly motionless on the substrate or within kelp during the day.  Some Kelp rockfish wrap themselves in kelp, probably to enhance their camouflage against predators.  At night, they are much more active and feed on small invertebrates and fish.

Thank you for expressing interest in my content!  Stay tuned for a Part 2, where I will showcase the rockfish which did not make this blog post.  Until then, please share this blog with anyone you know interested in marine ecology and photography.

– Kameron