I've done a few dives here recently looking for cloud sponges. I was focusing on the area out to the left from the popular entry-point. I knew there must be at least a few since some local GUE divers have been monitoring some in the area (Project Baseline). During a couple of dives, I would snorkel along the shoreline far to the left, descend there, and then swim back looking for sponges. I only found a single small dead one, but it turns out I was looking too far to the left since I finally found a couple of cloud sponges closer to the entry-point (but still a bit far for casual divers). I was taking video on that dive so I came back on July 1, 2025 to take some photos. Visibility was about 10-15' in the top 30'. Below that, it cleared up to about 50' of visibility. My maximum depth was 110' around the sponges.
Swimming out to the sponges:
I reached the larger sponge. One side had a dead, grey portion, but overall it seemed healthy. It was full of squat lobsters, crabs and shrimp.
Nearby was the second, smaller sponge.
There was also a 3rd, much-smaller, half-dead sponge nearby, but it might have just been a piece broken off of one of the other sponges.
I couldn't stay down at that depth with the sponges for too long so I started the swim back up the slope.
