Kelp Dancing in a Beam of Sunlight

Giant kelp near the surface at the Wheel dive site, on the north side of Anacapa Island.

Toward the end of my last dive in the Channel Islands in August, I was hovering near the surface when I saw beams of sunlight dancing across the kelp. This frond seemed to be bending into the Sun's illumination for a moment. The water was clear and the sky was cloudless, so illumination was good underwater. The ocean was warm: 71F, too warm for kelp. El Niño is having an effect.