The diet consists of encrusting invertebrates and particles filitered through a mucous net. The masking crab camoflauges its carapace with bits of sponges, hydroids, and anemones attached to the hairs on the back. Octopus are smart invertebrates that have been given intelligence tests and passed them in flying colors. Octopus come out at night and feed on shellfish and crabs. Octopus are very common at night along the Monterey Peninsula.
Prickly sharks are rare deep water sharks that are found in the Monterey Bay.
Due to its small continental shelf and submarine canyon, unusual deep water creatures may sometimes be seen close to shore. Prickly sharks are an example of these unusual animals. Prickly sharks may be seen in about 100 feet of water off Moss Landing. Basking sharks feed on plankton, and use their gill rakers to collect plankton in the water column. Basking sharks are regular visitors of the Monterey Bay, and were the subject of a fishery in the Bay earlier in the century.