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 .

[derekcs]

Thank you for identifying these eggs. I thought they belonged to the kelp greenling that was circling around but couldn't be sure.

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.

[Jan K]

Thank you for identifying these eggs. I thought they belonged to the kelp greenling that was circling around but couldn't be sure.

Some of them are better guardians than others.

No shortage of Northern Kelp crabs, just a shortage of kelp this time of the year.
Few more snaps from last Saturday dive. How the time flies...

[Jan K]

Among the discarded junk people throw into the ponds, somebody dumped bunch of Giant Pacific Oysters into the still waters. Many died, some are still alive. I would not recommend eating anything from this body of water. Tides and currents are not changing the water here...

[Jan K]

More "stuff" from the pond. The Moon jellies are preferable to discarded toilets ...

[Jan K]

January 17th, Keystone Jetty was not a good dive. While trying to take pictures of freedivers at the jetty, my drysuit collected sea water in quantities that I had hard time walking once I made it to the beach. Weezle undergarment kept me warm, but once the water transferred into my feet, it was almost comical, the cartoon shows the true state of affairs... The reason for the flood, the last few millimeters of the zipper did not completely close ...

[Jan K]

Possession Point Fingers, January 22.2021
Hard to believe, back in 2012, I monitored over 50 Lingcod nests here. Now I found ONE. Of course, the nesting season is just beginning, but these days Lingcod sighting are very rare here and I have not much hope of finding more of them. :(

[Jan K]

Few more from Possession Point Fingers, January 22nd dive.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Park, January 23rd. The highlight of the dive? Adding a new critter to my list. Flattop crab ! The little crab would not come out from its hiding place inside a rotting timber hollowed by shipworms, but one sneak picture is better than no picture

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor, January 26. I am still finding some sea star wasting. It is not a wide spread as it used to be, but their numbers are definitely down. For some strange reason, the Ochre stars like to group together. Another sad news, the two headed Giant Plumose anemone, which live on the same spot for 13 years disappeared. I looked for it around, but it is gone. :(

[Jan K]

As most of you know, planning to dive Keystone depends a lot on weather, most importantly, on the wind. Its direction and speed. Checking different sources on internet, one will quickly discover, that like most things today, there is no unity. On Wednesday I looked at Keystone forecasts for Thursday and I got to choose from 14.7 knots on Ventusky to 6 knots in Windy. This time, I trusted my action to Windy and it was right. The official Marine Forecast for mariners cheated by predicting 5-15 knots, which didn't really help me with planning.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, January 28.
Lingcod guarding eggs and more anemones ...

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty - January 29th.
The new crop of invasive sargassum is beginning to rise up in the shallows. The empty Giant barnacle shells are always worth a second look. They are favorite housing to lots of critters...

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty dive, January 28th.
These tiny snails have some beautiful markings. Too small for my old eyes to pick up while underwater and too late to seek out the more interesting ones. I will leave it to you guys and gals with better eyes or macro setup to get the pictures these beauties deserve