Northwest Dive Club

Both species of snails are visible in this view.

Actually it's a mix of leafy hornmouth (Ceratostoma) and Nucella lamellosa egg capsules. The Nucella are towards the lower left, while the Ceratostoma are filling the upper right. You can see the flattened, curled shape.

Definitely a Loxorhynchus. Surface of the carapace looks like L. crispatus, but there appear to be some spines along the edge which are present only in grandis. Or it could just appear that way due to decorations. You may find crispatus up here in our area. Since my book came out, they have turned u...

Yep, it's a hirsutiusculus. Main reason most divers don't see it very often is because it's an intertidal species, living where we're putting on our fins rather than where we're looking.

yep, same thing as your previous post, except with its tentacles retracted.

Feeding tentacles of a sea cucumber, Cucumaria miniata.

I've been working on a new edition for quite a while- it will add about 60 more species, including several that I've described and named since the first edition came out, plus 'new and improved' pictures. The catch is that the present batch have to sell out before the publisher will do another editi...

Click on my website button and you might get some ideas

It's either a juvenile or a female. Females have small claws, as do males until they reach sexual maturity.
Like other spider crabs, once they molt to sexual maturity, they never molt again. But it's not clear what determines the size that they become sexually mature. Some do it at 5mm, some at 45mm.

No, it's an adult male sharpnose crab (Scyra acutifrons).

Yep, same thing.

Correct on the first one (Heptacarpus brevirostris). The second is a deep blade shrimp, Spirontocaris prionota. It's sitting on a hermit crab, Pagurus caurinus.

They turn up in Washington and BC every once in a while, so Sitka doesn't seem out of the question.

They are very interesting fish- very common under rocks at low tide, so lots of them are shallower than where divers are usually looking. As juveniles they feed on things like small crustaceans, but as they mature they develop specialized, wedgelike teeth that they use to pop off and eat limpets. Th...

Yes, it's a Placetron. If this was by Alki then it's the furthest down into the Sound that I've heard of one.
The fish is a snake prickleback.

Hi all sorry for the cross-posting, but I'm trying to reach as many critter-savvy divers as possible. This is the time of year when female dungeness crab extrude their egg masses and bury themselves in sand or mud while they incubate their brood. There are certain areas (e.g., Mukilteo, right where ...