Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

May 13 dive. Couple sea slugs and more color from Deception Pass.

[Jan K]

Yup, more Deception Pass scenery.

[Jan K]

Deception Pass. Final installment of images from May dives - surveying sea stars and watching few slugs eating and mating ...

[ScubaJess]

Sooooo lovely!!!!!

[Jan K]

Thank you ScubaJess

Keystone Jetty. May 16. The visibility is not the greatest due to the annual Spring planktonic soup, which is necessary to provide us with future life, so instead of complaining, I click away pointing the camera at the jetty rocks

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, May 16. The Giant Plumose Anemones, so numerous there are partially responsible for the planktonic soup. Releasing their gametes into the water column, adding more stuff into the annual reproductive activity of marine life. Interestingly, only few anemones choose to do the gamete release, most choose probably to go the asexual way.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, May 18. Two days later, no more spawning, but visibility still soso, about ten feet.
The Decorator crab here did not find much to dress up in. Actually it looks like many of us now, in the time of Covid-19 ...

[Jan K]

Another peek under the Driftwood Park drifting wood.

[Jan K]

This was the first time I found Purple Shore Crab , or any crab for that matter, in the Driftwood pond.
This dive, I found four of them ...

[Jan K]

Deception Pass. May 29. Just three divers in water and two fishermen on the beach !
And the sun shining through some thin clouds.

[Jan K]

Deception Pass, May 29. Not very easy to find among all the marine life covering every inch of the area close to the bridge. This Decorated Warbonnet would not venture out of its hiding hole.

[Jan K]

Sunday - slugs from recent dives.






Frequently found on rocks at Keystone. L.cockerelli & the L.sp.

[Jan K]

Deception Pass May 29. No Sea Star Wasting Disease observed.

[Jan K]

Scenes from the pond. The undetermined specie of sponge now appearing in a ball form.

[Jan K]

Shrimp and oysters. Not, this is not the menu at the local seafood restaurant.
Just some critters living under and among the driftwood

[Jan K]

Keystone June 1. Starting the new month at the island's popular diving hole.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty. Baby Mosshead warbonnet, Puget Sound rockfish and Sharpnose crab for you Sunday morning viewing pleasure.
Dash of color on this gray, drizzly daybreak.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty. Wrap up of the June 1st dive...

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor, June 3. Visibility is bad these days, planktonic soup all the way down to the tire reef.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Park. June 4. Japanese invasion in the Whidbey Ponds.
Japan mussels, sometimes clinging on Japanese wireweed.

[Jan K]

So it is kind of slimy, but if I am right, and it is what I think, it helps us live... I am lost in the world of algae.
So if somebody knows more, please educate me. Meanwhile, lets dive into the rather slimy water

[Jan K]

It was a busy week at Deception Pass. It started on Thursday, June 11th. It rained, the slack was quite early, I had the Pass to myself. No other divers, no fishermen, no tourists. Because of the overcast weather above, it was little too dark down below. The many Monterey dorid slugs didn't mind. But it is always nice when we shine some light on the scene...

[Jan K]

June 12. Day 2 of the Deception Pass dive mini marathon. In the rainy morning I am joined by two friends, also Pass addicts, Eric and Scuba Jess. Highlight of the dive for me was finding new to me slug, King's aldisa. At first I thought it was flatworm, since I did not see any rhinophores or gills.

[Jan K]

June 12. Day 2 of the Deception Pass dive mini marathon. In the rainy morning I am joined by two friends, also Pass addicts, Eric and Scuba Jess. Highlight of the dive for me was finding new to me slug, King's aldisa. At first I thought it was flatworm, since I did not see any rhinophores or gills.

[oldsalt]

Wow Jan, you're rewriting the books again. Porlier Pass, Fearnie Bluff, Agamemnon Channel, and Deception Pass. I've dived each of those places, but don't remember seeing Aldisa. Not surprising, each one provides a bounty of novel sights - shipwrecks, cloud sponges, amazing walls - I would probably not notice a small white slug. Good find.
-Curt