Animals at Salt Creek, Port Angeles

Fish & Invertebrate sightings and descriptions, hosted by resident NWDC ID expert Janna Nichols (nwscubamom).
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cephalogoddess
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Animals at Salt Creek, Port Angeles

Post by cephalogoddess »

Yesterday I got to go diving at my favorite site again- Salt Creek near Port Angeles. I always see something new here and the abundance of invertebrates is always incredible. All the rocks are absolutely covered in life and the sponges are so beautiful and colorful. I love this place! I thought I'd share some photos of the animals we saw. My favorite was the orange peel nudibranch- Tochuina tetraquetra. I've been wanting to see one for the last year and this was my first sighting. It was so much larger than I had expected! We always see an incredible diversity of nudibranchs at this site. We also visited a GPO that I believe we have seen there a couple times before last month. The Red Irish Lord was also a stunner- zoom in on the eyes. I had no idea they had such beautiful eyes.

Wanted to dive again today but I just couldn't bring myself to put on the still damp wetsuit. Need to get drysuit certified ASAP.
-Taryn
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Tom Nic
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Re: Animals at Salt Creek, Port Angeles

Post by Tom Nic »

Gotta get out here someday!

How were the conditions?

Did you check ahead of time or just show up and look?
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"Anyone who thinks this place is over moderated is bat-crazy anarchist." -Ben, Airsix
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cephalogoddess
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Re: Animals at Salt Creek, Port Angeles

Post by cephalogoddess »

We've dove there about 6 times now and never was the visibility so poor and the current so nonexistent as yesterday's dive. That being said, visibility here is usually awesome so poor vis here is good vis elsewhere. We dove this on a high tide too; maybe that contributed. We always check tides before diving here and just gauge current when we show up. We dove here about a month ago and three HUGE sea lions came right up to us and hung out for most of the dive. It was very scary. The female kept getting about 4 inches from our faces. They were very curious. Anyways, this place is always amazing.
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YellowEye
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Re: Animals at Salt Creek, Port Angeles

Post by YellowEye »

Very cool. That site is magic on a sunny clear-water day. I haven't considered doing it this time of year, maybe I should!
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