Northwest Dive Club

Vjw, I am glad you enjoy Whidbey Critters.

After a month long absence, I revisited Langley Harbor. On my last visit I found widespread sea star wasting and so I was quite apprehensive about what I might find this time. Well, it was not as bad as I expected. I did find some sick stars, but majority of them is healthy and I did find some baby stars too. What was really strange, that I found only two Pink short-spined stars. They used to be dominating the area around and on the tire reef. They were not as badly hit by the major outbreak of the disease during the peak period, but I could not see any this time. I hope I will find them on my next dive there. The sea star activity on one of the mooring H-beam anchors is also interesting. I try to make a point to visit it on every dive.

Slugfest at Skyline. Although only the usual participants, no new discoveries.

In spite of rather ugly weather, it was a busy scene at at the Keystone Underwater Park, parking was at premium.
However, meeting friends, above and underwater is always nice, regardless of weather.
Thanks guys for the hot dog !

The scenery at Skyline is less colorful these days since the Red sea cucumbers and the Creeping pedal cucumbers stopped feeding for the time being, and the Black cucumbers, although much more numerous are only adding to the monotone feel of the dive site. And their mass spawning did not improve the visibility neither...

Coupeville wharf. What was once a place overrun with Ochre and Mottled sea stars is now a barren place with few survivors. Unless they moved somewhere during the month I was not diving here. In view of the place being covered with mussels, which happens to be their food, I don't think they went elsewhere. :(

Ghost shrimp. Their burrow entrances, which look like a small volcanoes, indicate that there are thousands of them under the sand.
But it is a very rare chance to actually see the critter itself.

Ghost shrimp are a preferred food for gray whales. The state stopped issuing commercial fishing licenses to encourage the whales to keep feeding. It might be fun to dive the same spot after the whales have made their first pass through in the spring to see how the bottom looks then.
-Curt

Sapsucker slug from Lagoon Point dive.

Big snail has always the right of way, as the small Wrinkled Amphissa finds out on the Holmes Harbor sandy plain.

Hooded aka Lion nudibranchs. Couple years ago in December, there were hundred of them here, this time I found only two little ones hunting on eel grass patch .

First dive of 2018. Keystone Jetty. Visibility about ten silty feet. Even the critters are covered with silt.
Not exactly what I was hoping for after two week absence from diving. :(

It seems that lately, it was easier to find an octopus on dry land than at Keystone jetty.
Finally, on my first dive of 2018 the spell was broken and I found a small GPO at the base where they used to be a permanent feature.

I like your pictures with the juxtaposition of dry and wet (real) octopus. Thank you!

Just gorgeous!

Thank you Tom, Vjw ...

Lagoon Point - Creatures of the muck. At times I wonder how they find food in such "yukky" environment...
Quote from Jurassic Park:
"If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but life, finds the way."

Checking on sea stars at Langley, with assistance from Maya. What was a nice surprise - hundreds of baby sea stars on rocks along the seawall as it has been now every winter. But obviously, most of them don't survive, since the numbers of adults are still way down from the good old days, the recovery being meager. And signs of wasting are still present. Well, at least it is not totally grim scene. I did found two adolescent Sunflower stars, looking healthy. I am still baffled why only one of the H-beam mooring anchors attracts so many stars while all the others have only few of them...

This is wonderful news!!!

When I look at the pictures of the marvelous variety of seastars, I am reminded of a conversation I had with another diver. We were both from Puget Sound and were diving in Fiji. He made the comment that he didn't dive in Puget Sound, because "There is nothing to see there." I mentioned the things we have that aren't common in the tropics, such as seastars, he responded, "They aren't worth looking at." Joanie Mitchell's lyric comes to mind, "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone." Thank's for spreading your sense of wonder at the commonplace in the natural world.
-Curt

Curt, as the saying goes : " Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"...

Couple more from Langley dive. Male Northern Kelp Crab protecting his female from the nosy diver with camera and Buffalo sculpin trying to blend in with end of sunken piling along with Mottled star, hiding from the same pesky divers

Under drizzly, overcast skies of January searching for colors in murky Skyline waters. The sea cucumbers are still not feeding, so sponges and few anemones try to break up the bleak underwater scenery which on this day mimic the weather above...

These are little too small for the "Shrimp on the barbie" Both, the Kincaid and Candy Stripe like to hang out around the Crimson anemones...

Truly amazing colors!!!

It has been a while since I came across "built as a tank" critter - adult Puget Sound King Crab.
It is not common in the waters around Whidbey Island.

Possession Point Fingers. Winter is time to check on the fish laying/ guarding. The Lingcod, which used to be so numerous here, are long gone, overfishing/spearfishing clearly the culprits. Not one Lingcod nest, only one small Lingcod seen on this dive. Some Buffalo sculpins and Red Irish Lords are doing their parental duty, it did not peaked yet, some still just laying around eggless




And some rockfish shots for a good measure ...