Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

Update on Whidbey sea stars, end of March.

[Jan K]

Muck dive at Lagoon Point produced slugs which I don't encounter anywhere else in Whidbey Island waters. All very small and I had hard time to tell what is head and what is tail on the Diomedes' aglaja. I found quite a number of them floating in mid-water. Strange behavior for a slug living under the mud...

[Jan K]

The forecast for Thursday called for sunshine. (Finally). Instead, a tornado touched down at Monroe, and plenty of clouds over Whidbey, with some sun-breaks. In short, diving weather. Lately I am trying to to show not only the critters I come across during my dive, but also a wide angle shot showing the environment in which I found them. And tomorrow, instead of diving, I am going to visit the Scuba & H2O Adventures show in Tacoma. Hope to see some of you there.

[Jan K]

From the world of creeping or burrowing invertebrates with long, slender, soft bodies and no limbs.
The unusual reproductive way of the Necklace worms.

[Jan K]

Winter is over! New crop of seaweeds is covering the shallows of Keystone, the forest of Bull kelp is climbing up toward the surface.

[Jan K]

Keystone Pilings and Jetty, little bit of color on a gray Saturday morning.

[Jan K]

Last of the scenic shots from last week dives at the Pass.

[Jan K]

Wolf-eel and Plainfin midshipman are not a common sight at Deception Pass.

[Jan K]

The currents. They are what makes the Deception Pass such interesting place to dive. Feeding the innumerable amount of marine life thrive by providing flyby food, and so providing diver with plenty photo opportunities. One of them was the spawning of Vancouver Feather-duster worms...

[Jan K]

Few more from the Deception Pass...

[Jan K]

I am falling behind with processing photos, today I did yet another, this week third day of diving the Deception Pass. So the load is getting bigger with every dive and I seem to enjoy taking pictures more than working with them on the computer. But, it is better that being stuck in the darkroom with stinky chemicals. Here are few more pages of what is to see under the bridge ...

[Jan K]

Jan I can't believe you dove that! Yuk!

Yup, Yuk is the right word...

On Sunday dive among the Keystone pilings and current ride along the rope trail, I met Pacific octopus before it becomes a Giant
And a pair of mating Monterey dorids .

[Gdog]

Jan I can't believe you dove that! Yuk!

[Jan K]

Thanks Gdog.

While diving, we never know what kind of encounter is awaiting us once we descend into the watery world.
This encounter borders on the unnatural. Welcome to the DEAD ZONE

[Gdog]

Awesome stuff!

[Jan K]

Getting up at five in the morning to go diving on a cloudy, cold morning might not be something normal people would consider fun. But because I am not claiming to be normal and there was no wind or rain in the forecast (unlike so many times this winter), I revisited Skyline on Fidalgo Island only to find murky water. Well, at least I found lots of baby sea stars.

[Jan K]

Lagoon Point. Another worm. Do you like Spaghetti ?

[Jan K]

Having "Slime" in you name doesn't trigger visions of beauty, but I think they are not ugly.
Unless you touch them and they retreat into their slimy cocoons.

[Jan K]

It looks like a little tree, but it is an animal !

[Jan K]

Diomedes' aglaja. One of the slugs I don't find often. It is not rare, I just don't much dive muddy bottoms.

[Jan K]

With all that rain and wind, I feel stuck. It is a slow day. Barnacle kind of day.

[ScubaJess]

WOW! Crazy cool and kinda scary

[Jan K]

Thank you Alex. After taking many, many pictures of the Leafy hornmouth and its interesting egg capsules, this was the first time I managed to get picture of the capsule BEFORE it gets placed into the bundle.

And on the lighter note:
First came Daylight Savings Time, then came more rain and now the Kelp crab turned into a carnivore.
Oh, the horrors !

[Tidepool Geek]

Hi Jan,

Your photos are always terrific but that first image of the leafy hornmouth & eggs is truly a cut above!

Gobsmackedly yours,
Alex

[Jan K]

Leafy Hornmouth busy at the Deception Pass laying egg capsules.