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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:09 am
by Jan K
Tom Nic wrote:Was he actually sleeping, or did you just catch him with his eyes closed?!
The reason I depicted this GPO as sleeping was that unlike other encounters with GPOs, when they move a little and change colors when I move around taking pictures, this one just sit there, and was in the same location and posture almost one hour later when I checked on him at the end of dive. And no, he wasn't dead \:D/

Late Halloween

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:34 am
by Jan K
I took the liberty of turning the photo upside down and adding little bit of Hollywood to the scene - the way the blobs of worms wiggle and shake when you swim by, could give you creepy feeling if it wasn't a sunny day yesterday .. :pale:

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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:32 pm
by LCF
One of the things I love about your pictures is that they make me aware of creatures I may very well have looked past, or not even noticed. I'll have to look for the slime worms from now on!

Sunflower star encounter

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:18 am
by Jan K
I dove a new site on Whidbey yesterday, rather uninspiring underwater topography with not much cover sea life -Current swept sandy slope with patches of empty clam shells and gravel. Searching for critter to photograph, I came upon an area with many very small, juvenile Orange Sea Pens. Large Sunflower Star in its usual fashion was moving speedily over the sand approaching the Sea pens. I was curious to see what will happen when the two creatures meet. One is well know predator which even eats its own species and the other a gentle filter feeder, much, much smaller size. I expected the Sea pen bury itself in sand and hope for best, since the Sunflower star has no difficulty digging up clams buried way down under the sand. Well, was I in for a surprise. Not only the Sea pen did not panic and bury itself, it stood up and the Sunflower Star stopped in its track!. As you all know when watching “Pycnopodia” marching across the seafloor, it is all legs. When it came close to the tiny pen, the tube feet retracted and the arm of the star reared up, without even touching the pen. I saw it repeated again and again when the star moved sideways and encountering the other sea pens in the group. It did not crawl over them as I expected. The sea star was obviously stopped by some thing coming from the sea pen, but not visible to my eyes, it was not transmitted via touch... The Sunflower star then gingerly moved away from the sea pens. ...

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Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 11:14 am
by Tom Nic
Wow. Now THERE'S a study begging to be done and a paper begging to be written! :book: :smt024

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:13 pm
by Jan K
It was very interesting to watch. Here is another shot, it shows how the star is hesitant to "touch down" the arms facing the sea pens while all the others are in normal, down position. Sorry about the quality of the picture.

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Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:11 pm
by Tom Nic
Very clear, and VERY interesting! Janna, any thoughts?!

Crab trap

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:08 pm
by Jan K
I did not see what the trap was baited with, but it sure attracted plenty of dinner guests..

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Giant Sea Cucumber

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:22 pm
by Jan K
There are two ends to the Giant Sea Cucumber .
The front :

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And the rear :
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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:58 pm
by Sounder
Now THAT'S funny!!! =D> :prayer:

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:11 pm
by Seth T.
Ha! Awesome! :laughing3:

Cabezon's snack

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:55 am
by Jan K
The Cabezon was not about let its "Gunnel on the Stick" snack go when I found the two on Langley Tire Reef yesterday :

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Eel Grass Buffet

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:50 pm
by Jan K
In the murky waters of Holmes Harbor I found two slugs in the close proximity, one is the hunter which uses its hood like a fishing throw net to catch small crustacea living on the blades, while the Dendronotus iris, or Giant Nudibranch is more famous for attacking Tube-dwelling Anemones, here on the Eel Grass it is using its teeth on hydroids..

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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:47 pm
by LCF
Jan, lovely photographs as usual, and educational as you so often are.

Thank you so much for continuing to create and post these pages.

Sharpnose romance

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:56 am
by Jan K
Thank you for kind words LCF.
And now back to the Soap Opera: " All my (Whidbey) children".

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Dendronotus frondosus

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:03 am
by Jan K
Added another slug to my Whidbey Island list :book:

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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:17 pm
by LCF
OOOOH . . . I spotted one of those on our James Island dive in the San Juans in early October, but nobody got nearly as good a picture of it as you got of this one! They're really beautiful in person, even without the benefit of a macro lens.

Dungeness crab

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:37 pm
by Jan K
When our fellow NW Diver Greg Jensen asked for help to identify Dungeness crab incubating areas, I took a much closer look at my backyard here on Whidbey where I saw in the past crabs burying themselves, but thought that they were the soft shells after molting, hiding from predators. Greg description of what is also happening helped me open another chapter of my understanding of the underwater world. Thanks Greg! Please note, that the egg pictures on the third panel are from a two dead crabs I found, not victims of my picture taking. I have no idea what killed them, that is probably another chapter..

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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:27 am
by LCF
Very cool information, Jan! I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for those mostly-buried crabs.

Threespine Stickleback

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:12 pm
by Jan K
Amazing little fish, can live in fresh and salt water, I find them as lone fish at Lagoon Point and schooling at Keystone.

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Coonstripe Shrimp

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 5:47 pm
by Jan K
I didn't know this...

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Shaggy Mouse

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:42 pm
by Jan K
Time of the year when Shaggy Mouse start to appear in numbers here on Whidbey.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:19 pm
by WylerBear
Very cool, as always, Jan. Valerie & I saw our first "mouse" of the season at Redondo last week.

Muck

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:25 am
by Jan K
We all been there. Murky water and with limited visibility, the usual array of critters to greet us diminishes, making it difficult to locate them, maybe they scramble out of the area before we see them. One of the the exceptions are nudibranchs, specially the White-lined Dirona, aka Frosted or Alabaster Nudibranch. The dive is saved, twinkle twinkle little slug......


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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:07 am
by LCF
Jan, your artwork is simply amazing!

BTW, thank you for solving my Christmas present issues -- I just ordered nine copies of the book!