Fox Island West Wall

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dphershman
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Fox Island West Wall

Post by dphershman »

Mark and I went out to Fox Island West Wall yesterday for a change. This site is always a rather modest dive overall with a short wall at 45 feet (that is easy to miss) but the site always has lots of varieties of nudibranchs due perhaps to the variety both rocky and sandy bottom terrain.

Here's a few photos

there were quite a few juvenile sun stars in the shallower areas, but no adults. Hopefully they'll survive and grow.
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This black-eyed hermit crab was posing for the picture with his barnacle-encrusted home.
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a rather nice Red Dendronotid on the side of the wall
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A pair of gunnels getting cozy together
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We often find Striped Nudibranchs cruising on the sand just above the wall.
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A Shaggy Mouse on a buoy chain
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A free-swimming Hooded (Lion's Mane) nudibranch. Last year there were hordes of them but so far this year we only see one of two and they seem to be drifting, rather than on eel grass.

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And though we were getting low on air, we had to stop at the eel grass and photograph the tiny Longhorns (Opalescent Nudibranch).

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Dan
Dan Hershman :smt024
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Tom Nic
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Re: Fox Island West Wall

Post by Tom Nic »

Nice! How was the viz?

Any Giants around?

We were planning on heading out there but had to bail last minute. Gotta get out there again soon.
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dphershman
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Re: Fox Island West Wall

Post by dphershman »

Tom Nic wrote:Nice! How was the viz?

Any Giants around?

We were planning on heading out there but had to bail last minute. Gotta get out there again soon.
Viz was between 15 and 20 feet depending on location. We didn't see any Giants around this time, but we have seen some rather nice red-colored ones in the past. There was one octo, but she was rather whitish in color so I don't think she'll be around much longer.

this is also a place to find Pink Tritonia, but we didn't see any of them yesterday.

Dan
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LCF
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Re: Fox Island West Wall

Post by LCF »

Nice photos! I've only done (or tried to do) that site once, and we didn't find the wall. Saw fields of gorgeous red and white clam siphons, though!
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
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dphershman
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Re: Fox Island West Wall

Post by dphershman »

we find that if we go too deep we miss it completely, then have to double back. If we stick to 40-45 feet at 180 degrees we hit right on it.
Dan Hershman :smt024
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