Skyline, Critter ID

[fmerkel]

Did a dive at Skyline today. Lousy viz but decent critter action. Found a shrimp like critter I've never seen, about 1/2 inch. Could not ID in the big [Crabs and Shrimps of the Pacific Coast] book by Greg Jensen.
Also found a dark gray sponge (I think) about the size of a tennis ball, with small crabs? living in the pores. There were 2 sponges fairly close together.

Color of the sponge did not come out like it looked to the naked eye but otherwise the pix is pretty good. Could not ID sponge or crab.
With all the plankton in the water the sea cucumbers were on an eating binge. Saw several juvenile wolf eels and one diver saw a PS King Crab larger than anything he's ever seen before.

[ScubaJess]

Super cool. Looks like a really mad squat lobster.
Also really neat crab! Good job finding those guys.

[Jan K]

Great find. Don't know the second critter, the first one is a Tube Dwelling Sea Flea:

[fmerkel]

Hoping for an ID, I get an education. Fantastic! You are the best.
I assumed they were using the 'sponge' opportunistically, not making it.

[fmerkel]

I received a response from Andy Lamb. The colorful 'flea' is [Thorlakson's short rostrum amphipod Thorlaksonius brevirostris -- which is not in the hard copy of our book. However, it has been added to our online product. The book is now 12 years old and in the interim, we have added over 100 species and a great many photographs which are available with the online version.]

He's referring to the on line version of "Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest" which you can subscribe to.