Sweet at first glance

Hey I'm sure I wasn't the only one whose mouth was hanging open at the ocean conditions forecast this weekend. Was hoping to dive three days including Monday, but some family things came up so today is my one day.
Ran up to Mendo with my trusty sidekick, Skipper. It was, as my younger daughter says, "a Skippery kind of a day!" in other words, a day to get really excited! But the gorgeous calm surface hid an ever increasingly horrible enviromental collapse.  The spot I dove had ZERO kelp visible coming to the surface, that's standing on the bluff scanning all around, searching for kelp in an almost 180 degree turn.
In a weird way, it is fascinating to see exactly all the boulders and structures completely revealed. It makes me realize, how in normal years, with bull kelp waving everywhere, I am sort of guessing what holes exist, where a fish might escape to, or even whether I can find the same spot again if I go up for another breath.
Anyway, it was still great to get in a hunt. Did put one linger in the box, but I noticed its belly was totally empty- I felt its gut on the beach and just confirmed it cleaning it tonight. Absolutely empty!
Hope everyone who got out had safe dives and maybe some more cheerful environmental observations!

Great pic.  That's a happy dog.

It's going to be years before the kelp grows back.  We're definitely going to go through die off of urchins as they run out of food...  The fish I've pulled up lately have also had empty bellies.  I'm not sure what to learn from that, though.  They look plump otherwise.

Nice ling you have there. It is always a bummer not having kelp but it makes swinging a gun and looking in holes way easier.