Whirlwind tour of the south sound

[jmartel]

Had a friend from LA come up this past weekend so he could get some puget sound diving in and check off a few critters from his list. Lumpies, Ratfish, GPO's, and wolf eels were the big 4 he wanted to photograph. We didn't end up finding a GPO, but were able to get the others to at least show up.













We had planned to do 2 tanks at Salt Creek, but his computer ended up saying he had to wait 24 hours to fly instead of the 16 my computer normally requires. Not all was lost, however, and we ended up taking a Christmas Eve dive around the Peninsula to a few spots in Olympic National Park.

Kalaloch



Lake Crescent



Hoh Rainforest

[Tom Nic]

Fantastic!

Lovely pictures, and a wonderful adventure!

We are so privileged to live here!

[Gdog]

So very awesome, love both topside and underwater!

[ScubaJess]

Super cool!! It was great to dive with you guys at Sund Rock. Thanks again for the delicious bbq!
So glad you guys got to see lumpies at Redondo also and the salamander was crazy cute!

[derekcs]

Your friend is a mutual follow on Instagram whose photos I greatly enjoy.

Good photos! Really like the ratfish shot. I was photographing the same wolf eel at the Junkpile a couple weeks ago!

[jmartel]

Thanks guys. And derek, he led the Guadalupe trip that I did last year. He's been talking about coming up to the sound for lumpies and ratfish pretty much ever since then. Finally decided last minute that last weekend would work.

And I think about 75% of the time I've been at Junkyard there's been a wolf eel in that duct.

Couple other snapshots.

Shaggy mouse nudi at junkyard



Buffalo sculpin on the golf ball boat at Three Tree



And Matt with the blind ratfish above

[YellowEye]

Cool adventure and great to meet your friend.

Funny you mention a blind ratfish. I think I saw one too, at Three Tree! It was looking confused and running into the kelp often.

[jmartel]

That's the one from the first photo. Was good for photos because you could sit in front of it and wait for it to get super close. I haven't been to three tree in a while before this. Need to get back more.

[Vjw]

Beautiful shots above and below the water! The head-on PSL shot is my favorite!