Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 3

(See Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 1 and Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 2)

Above is a male sheephead, a common game fish in California, and below are a pair of females. Fun fact: all sheephead are born female, and eventually change to males later in life.

Here’s a Lingcod:

A scorpionfish:

Some rockfish:

Another salp (I think Thetys):

And finally, the Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish. This was the first time I had ever seen one. The heaviest bony fish in the world, the Mola lives primarily in the open ocean and feeds on jellyfish. With all the salps at the rigs, it’s no wonder that Mola were here too.

Even though the conditions weren’t all that great, I still had an incredible time diving the Eureka and Ellen-Elly oil rigs in California. We’re headed to Vermont for a month or so of skiing and to the Bahamas for some shark diving, but when we get back to San Diego in the early spring, I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for more rigs trips. I really do think that California cold-water diving is some of the best in the world.