Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

First dive of the new year. Lagoon Point, January 1st 2021. The weather around Whidbey Island was not the nicest, plenty of wind and rain.
So I dived into the protected waters of the canal and revisited the muck habitat under the floating docks.

[Jan K]

Yesterday January 6th, after the dive at Driftwood, I spent the afternoon waiting for the dredging equipment leave the Keystone waters.
Finally. Here are some pictures from the new Keystone Jetty Underwater Park beachhead...

[Jan K]

Saturday, January 9th. It was cold, but waiting for sunrise under the mostly clear skies was made bearable in good company of friends. We were rewarded by good visibility underwater. So it all was worth leaving the warm bed while it was still dark and freezing outside

[Jan K]

The Keystone Jetty might be now open to divers again, but southerly winds make it difficult there, so instead of new pictures, here are more from Saturday dive. And did I mention that there are many Wrinkled dogwinkle snails there ? And Striped seaperch too...

[Jan K]

Last batch of pictures from Saturday Keystone. Snaps from the shallow part of jetty...

[Jan K]

After almost two days, electric power is back on !

Langley Harbor January 8th. So many lost traps littering the sea floor... People place them from the floating dock and the lines get tangled in the mooring cables holding the docks and make it impossible to recover the traps later. In the past I helped to remove them, but the onslaught continued and I would had to spend my dives on that instead on my sea star surveys. Now when I find abandoned trap, I free the occupants and leave the door open so nothing gets caught in them.

[Jan K]

For a month now, I watch commercial divers (sometimes up to five boats), slowly moving around Mutiny Bay digging up Geoducks. What will be left after they leave? I am not trying to stir the pot, we have enough problems lately in this country. But it keeps me wondering, do we have to be so efficient in harvesting our seas ?

[Jan K]

The Keystone dredging finished, calm winds on Saturday brought plenty of divers back to Whidbey Island. Although it was overcast and gray above the water, color could be found below. It took little bit of hiking to get to the water edge, but worth it.
It was great to see friends again...

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, Friday January 15th. Glad to enjoy the site after almost three months of closure due to dredging. The Giant Plumose anemone, the signature animal gracing the jetty rocks, looks more like a flower. Here the anemones are predominantly white, but the orange variety peeks out here and there, just to make it more interesting. At Langley, on the other side of Whidbey Island, it is the way around, the orange variety is dominant, the white is rare. Go figure..Male Scalyhead sculpin guarding eggs inside empty Giant Barnacle shell gives me the evil eye as I try to get closer look. Life is good

[Jan K]

Kelp greenling males are also guarding eggs, and most of their eggs are also in empty barnacle shells.
The greenling spend lot of time chasing away the Striped perch which are cruising all over the jetty now.

[Dominick Gheesling]

Absolutely LOVE your posts!!!

Looking forward to diving in PNW very soon.

[Jan K]

Absolutely LOVE your posts!!!
Looking forward to diving in PNW very soon.

Thank you Dominick, hope you will enjoy what our waters have to offer....


Unlike some of the tiny critters occupying the rocks of Keystone Jetty, Wrinkled dogwinkle snails aka Frilled Dog Whelks are not hard to find. This time of the year, they congregate in large numbers and cover some of the rocks completely. Their yellow egg cases are showing up in great numbers. Why so many egg? Well, it seems that not only do the adults eat the eggs of their own and other species, but the first-hatched young will eat the eggs of their unhatched siblings. And to make it even more interesting, Leafy Hornmouth snails also join the reproduction show, mixing their shell together with Dogwinkles. Theirs are on the orange side of yellow, ans casing is of different shape .