I saw these Kelp Bass today in La Jolla Shores San Diego while snorkeling near the Marine Room. These white belly and mottled black and brown top bass are common in Southern California and I've seen them in sea grass and kelp. They will sometimes congregate around floating pieces of kelp. They seem to mostly eat small crustaceans off of the kelp. They will sit pretty still and let you get close enough for a good picture if you swim slowly.
I took these pictures with the Panasonic Lumix TS4 12.1 TOUGH Waterproof Digital Camera
which I feel is currently the best waterproof point and shoot camera you can now buy. Panasonic also makes a cheaper camera (model TS20) that it is hard to tell based on the specifications that it is significantly different, but the underwater picture quality is much worse.
