Northwest Dive Club

Deception Pass, Monday April 9. Once again, Low Tide higher than the High Tide prediction.
And we got sun in addition to favorable, even if again confusing currents.
Some divers not old enough to be retired I think played hooky and joined in for the dive.

Nice set of pix Jan. Always glad to see you.
Rhoda spotted the weight pouch the woman from Sunday lost. It was sitting right on the rock nose some people enter from. I went out and got it, didn't even need scuba.
Called her on the way home. She's an Aquarium volunteer and was on duty. She stopped by our house and picked it up on the way home. Turns out her dad was Joyce's Aquarium dive buddy for awhile. Small world sometimes.

Good job Fritz, it is a small world indeed.

Meanwhile on remote Whidbey beach the continuing saga of the young dead whale...

More views from the two recent dives at Deception Pass.
The good news is that it looks like widespread wasting of the Finger sponges stopped.

Beautiful pictures!
Glad to hear the finger sponge wasting disease seems to have stopped.

Wow that's quite the gang of sclayheads from the 8th! I hope to get out there next time!

Yesterday at Keystone, I came across this jellyfish predator. Its prey: jellyfish ...

I noticed recently that the signature fish of Keystone Jetty, the Lingcod, seem to be scarce. You could always count on encounter very big specimen on your dive. Lingcod were everywhere, on the seafloor and on rocks of jetty, indulge in the protection from fishing inside the protected area of the underwater park, ignoring diver presence, treating us as nuisance, not danger. At first I thought that it is because of poor visibility, that I am just not seeing them because of it. But, on Thursday, I had great visibility, over twenty feet, and there were not Lingcod to be found. Plenty of Striped perch in the shallower water, school of Black rockfish on the far end of the jetty, on the ferry side, but after all that search, I found only five Lingcod,, one large, not one of the giants. And I hear from other divers, that they noticed it too. In all the years I have been diving the Keystone Jetty, I experienced anything like this . :(

More from the Keystone Jetty dive. It looks like the Bull kelp is coming up in spite of the Japanese wireweed jungle taking over in some sections of the shallows.

Langley Harbor dive. Calm moment between winds and rain.

In case you are interested, the carcass of the young Gray whale on Whidbey Island West Beach is now about one mile north from the original landing spot on April 3rd, when it was reported for the first time. Two days later the scientists arrived with their knives and took samples. I revisited the site on April 5,6,9 and yesterday the 17th. The bones are now beginning to show. No birds seem to be interested in the free meal ...

Grunt sculpin and Lingcod from Skyline.

Hundreds of baby sea stars at Langley Harbor - only one wasting Ochre star. It does look promising.

Another visit to Possession Point Fingers. Abandoned Lingcod egg mass, some slugs, Buffalo sculpins and Red Irish Lords.

Fun with Janolus fuscus...

One of my favorite cold water Nudi's!! Gorgeous shots, BTW. I've always thought they look like fireworks!

Agreed, I love that one too!

Beautiful pics Jan...
Thank you again for this wonderful thread.
Kirsten

Glad you like them
More marine critters from under the docks at Lagoon Point.

I visited the Deception Pass this Monday.
The currents this tide cycle were wilder than I expected and the visibility was lousy too, silty ten feet...

Keystone Jetty, April 24. Only one Lingcod found. Not a good sign.

Deception Pass. Even the slugs had a hard time hanging on in the currents on Monday morning.

Skyline seaweed is also showing some bleaching.

There seems to be a never ending stream of corrections, attempts to correct and downright "fake news" concerning classification of marine life as I try to keep up. I am beginning to feel like sticking to common name creates less headaches even if it is a poor way to describe the critters we encounter.

Keeping track of nomenclature will keep you occupied for the rest of your life. It will never be settled and always disputed. I applaud your efforts. Metridium senile is one of the first I learned a half century ago. In that interval I have become Curt senile.