Northwest Dive Club

July begins with another visit to the Driftwood Park.

Celebrating the Fourth at Deception Pass.

Hi Jan,
Your photography is always terrific, but you've outdone yourself with that image of nudibranch eggs - incredible detail!

Plus, I always enjoy seeing photos of things named for the wrong color; like the yellow "White Nudibranch" or a purple "Ochre Star" or a yellow/green "Red Irish Lord". Keep up the good work!


Colorfully yours,
Alex

Jan you are so cool!!!! Love all these snaps

Langley Harbor sea star survey. Bad visibility at Tire reef, unusual - the visibility in the shallows was better (6-8 feet) while below the thermocline it dropped to four feet. Ochre stars are still wasting away, nevertheless, hundreds of baby stars on rocks below the seawall still look healthy.

Giant sea cucumber. Contributing to the bad visibility on my dive in Langley Harbor.

Attention divers! Those little "flags" streaming from the ends of Red sea urchins are not what you think they are ...
Read all about it.

The Skyline wall on Fidalgo Island. I enjoyed two days of diving there under sunny skies and comfortable tide currents. I love the variety of marine life and the colors there. Buffalo sculpins all over the place. They are easy to photograph, they don't move much,for they hope that their camouflage makes them invisible

More from Skyline July 16 and 17 dives.

No Skyline dive would be complete without an encouter with a Wolf eel, even if only a juvenile.

And this concludes pics from the July Skyline dives

Very well done as always Jan, I love reading this thread!

Thank you Gdog for kind words.

What a difference one month does. I revisited Driftwood Park and found the small cluster of Japanese wireweed in bad shape. Probably a seasonal thing. Algae likes the higher summer temperatures and begins to cover other organism.

Deception Pass July 23 and 24. Beautiful sunny weather above lit up the underwater colors as well. The beach was filled with tourists basking in the sun, and parking was an issue. Nevertheless, I managed and had great two afternoon dives there. Tried shooting selfies to make the usual pics from the Pass a little different.

More from the last two dives at Deception Pass.

Hello little Red Irish Lord !

Wrapping up July 23 and 24 Deception Pass photo session...

Langley Harbor. At the moment, the only locality on Whidbey Island where I see large number of sea star wasting. But still large numbers of healthy ones. So I am still hopeful ... I am trying to find explanation why so many sea stars pile up on top of each other in certain spots, and it is not for spawning or food. Searching the internet did not provide any answers. Only Mottled and Ochre stars are doing it here at Langley. The Pink short-spined stars, also present here in great numbers, are not joining the congregations.

Happy 83rd birthday to the Deception Pass Bridge, which spans over the waters of my favorite dive spot .

Good news: The big Lingcods are back at Keystone Jetty !

Jan! You are awesome!!! I love those Ling pics and the Rock fish school makes me so happy!!!
Also Happy Birthday to My favorite dive spot Deception Pass!!! Thanks for the great info all the time!!!

Thank you Jess, glad you enjoy the postings

Keystone Jetty encounter with a Pacific staghorn sculpin.

Returned home from trip to Canada, the world around is filled with smoke, not healthy to even walk in it. Trying to catch up with work left behind, July 28th dive at Driftwood Park ...

Welcome home!! We missed you!
So terrible about all this smoke, I hope it rains really soon!
I love those Rockfish pics and super cool Wolf Eel!!! Also that smiling Pacific Staghorn Sculpin is adorable!!! :-)

Thank you Jess, it is good to be back, although the smoke filled scene is kind of depressing ...


Another dive BFS ( before the fire smoke). Skyline August 1.