GPO egg hatching

[Gdog]

Mike Penders and I decided to revisit TTN to see if we could catch the last of the GPO hatch. We were in luck, with visibility about 20', and eggs still hatching. A big plus to that was that we didnt get snagged by any fishermen either. Very very difficult to capture these little buggers as they dart all over heading for the surface when they leave the nest. I shot with a 60mm lens, but would have been better with a 105mm or a diopter, of which I have neither. Here are the better attempts.

What a challenge. And also, one of the best most enjoyable cold water dives I have done.

[Scubie Doo]

Awesome!!!! You got some keepers. I went this morning and they were still flowing out of the den. I will post a few a little later.

[Gdog]

Looking forward to seeing them. Hopefully Mike will post some of his too, and Calvin as well.

[ScubaJess]

Amazing shots! I really want to go see this. Let me know if you go back soon?

[Scubie Doo]

George, again congrats on getting some keepers. I agree, these past 3 dives have been some of the coolest I have ever done in my 500+ Puget Sound dives. Thanks for diving with me the other day and sharing this very cool experience.

Today I went back and splashed at 6:00am, 30 minutes before slack. The boaters and fisherman were already out, but I did not care. I got some of my best pics on the ThThTh2 dive. However, I wanted to go back and get a shot of one of the hatchlings in the actual den. It was extremely difficult shot and this isn't the best, because I simply could not get light back into the den to get nice saturation. But I will take it :-) There are actually (3) babies in this photo. Two are out of focus, but you can find them.


Here are (4) of my other favorites from this morning.








Have an awesome week everyone!

[Gdog]

Awesome shots!! And the den shot is very very cool....the one baby is in focus! Really puts it into perspective. What an epic event to photograph!!

[YellowEye]

Very cool!!!

[KeithBoll]

Thanks, everyone, for sharing these pictures! I am going to try going on Wednesday evening. I hope there are a few babies left!

[derekcs]

So jealous you guys got these photos. If any of y'all are planning to go out looking for hatchings, please PM me? I'd love to tag along.

[Tangfish]

Woot woot!!! Fantastic shots Gdog and Scubie!

I think the first dive we did there together was when I got the most decent shots, the second time was in current and no fun, but I did it a third time last night at slack and while there were way fewer octos hatching the water was completely still and vis was great. On top of that there were all kinds of nudis, one hooded species I'd never seen before, laying eggs and it was just unbelievably good everywhere I looked. I actually quit shooting the hatchlings halfway through and went after the nudis and their eggs.

As both of you said this was probably one of my most enjoyable cold water dives ever.

[YellowEye]

Hi
ScubaJess, DerekCs and I went tonight. Totally EPIC!!

It was definitely one of my best dives ever...

Seeing the octos try to swim up out of the den was so fun, we were cheering for them under water!

On top of that: great viz, mating squid in the shallows (many of which were quite curious), hooded nudis, tons of alabasters of all sizes, opalescent nudis, small salmon, small octos on the walkout, gunnels, pregnant rockfish, lots of shrimp and crab of various species, bright green kelp isopods (haven't seen these in a while!), longfin sculpin, moon jellies, ratfish, huge schools of shiner perch, and so much more!

A Discovery: the structure the octo is under is covered with pink mouth hydroids on the top ridges all around! I've never noticed this before. I even got to witness them extending, fanning out their pink egg-like structure. Bizarre and cool!

Another discovery: did you know that kelp byozoan colonies chain react and retract all at once when a small part of it is disturbed? So cool!

I came into the dive thinking the spectacle was probably already over, having heard it usually takes 3-4 days to hatch the eggs and for the octo to die. But no! Octo mom is still looking healthy, and there look to be lots of eggs left; she may be doing this for a while longer.

[ScubaJess]

That was one of my all time favorite dives!!! It was just super cute cool critter one after another! I loved all 92 minutes of it! Soooooo glad we got to see some baby GPOs! They were amazingly cute!! Thanks to YellowEye & Derekcs for diving with me.

[Gdog]

Very nice. Glad you guys got to take it in. Yes, in all the octo excitement we forgot to mention some of the other things, such as the multitude of alabaster nudis everywhere. TTN has been redeemed in my eyes!

[Hoodsport_Diver]

Amazing shots! I've avoided TTN because of the reports regarding parking and fishermen, but it looks like it was my loss.
Is anyone planning to go again in the next couple of days?

[Tangfish]

There's still time!

[derekcs]

We saw salmon? Which fish were those?
I guess that's how good it was. I don't even know all the cool stuff I saw.

[bradmond]

Amazing shots! I've avoided TTN because of the reports regarding parking and fishermen, but it looks like it was my loss.
Is anyone planning to go again in the next couple of days?

Available mornings if you are.

[YellowEye]

We saw salmon? Which fish were those?
I guess that's how good it was. I don't even know all the cool stuff I saw.

Yup, up in the water column! Definitely a salmon. It didn't hang around for long.

[ScubaJess]

Hey DerekCs,
Happy Thursday!
Did you get any pictures from the AMAZING dive?

[ljjames]

Anyone been back out?

[ScubaJess]

Headed back out tonight to see if we can see more baby GPO's. Will give you an update in the morning.

[YellowEye]

Laura, you're welcome to join us tonight, 6:30 meet

[ljjames]

LOL... then we'll have way to many cameras in the water

[YellowEye]

LOL... then we'll have way to many cameras in the water

unfortunately, no cameras for us today :(
they're in service

[mpenders]

Great shots Gdog and Scubie! What a great couple of dives to view the hatchings last week. Here's a few pics I managed:

This little guy seemed to be a bit confused. It was common for the baby GPO's to quickly head towards the surface once they exited the den. This guy started up like the rest, but at about 10' off the bottom he started swimming in circles...and then spiraled in a downward direction. He was moving so quick, I really couldn't get a good look at him - until I checked out the pic on the computer:

Not the greatest pic, but it gives you some perspective on how big the babies are. Also, click on the picture and check out the really tiny critter next to the GPO at it's one o'clock. Baby shrimp?

Most of our dive on Saturday was spent at the den with the hatchlings. I noticed lots of other critters hanging out at the den as well (looking for dinner?), including a variety of sculpins, flounders, and even an egg yolk jelly that did a fly-by right next to the den entrance:

Heading up, there were more critters that warranted camera-time: