Mukilteo Clay Walls - May 6th, 2007

[John Rawlings]

Well, I met Grateful Diver and Cheng this morning (Sunday 5/6) at 6:00 AM to dive the Mukilteo Clay Walls at the Park.

GD had dived the upper wall once about 4 years ago and Cheng had never dived the walls at all. My goal was to take them down to the lower, larger wall and slowly glide along it....giving them a great opportunity to see all of the macro life that exists there.

I was diving my KISS CCR while both of them were on Open-Circuit. The plan was for me to lead the dive until we reached the wall, but then they would assume leadership in terms of the turn-point and ascent since their gas consumption was the primary limiting factor.

We had some northerly current at entry that lasted until we dropped below about 30 FSW, then it dropped off to virtually nothing. Upon reaching the wall an ever-so-slight current was flowing south and we allowed it to gently sweep us slowly down the wall itself. the primary critters on the wall today were shrimps, juvenile rockfish of various species and blackeyed gobies. During the dive I saw 7 Red Octopuses, most in clam holes in the clay wall, but one out in the open that put on a show for Cheng in her very first underwater video. I also saw a squat lobster, Munida quadrispina, a species that I have seen plenty of times elsewhere, but NOT ever before on the Mukilteo wall. Not as much life today as there is other times of the year, but still nearly every hole had SOMETHING in it!

Visibility was around 20 feet at depth....maybe 10 feet in the shallows. Our maximum depth was 75 FSW. The resident juvenile wolf-eel was not at home, but there was an adult Copper rockfish inside the den. I was able to get virtually eye-to-eye with a Cabezon due to my bubbleless CCR, but when I approached within inches it finally decided that this "huge lump" that was approaching was too much and it jetted off into the murk as cabbies are wont to do. The team turned the dive when we were about 75 feet or so away from the end of the wall and we began our slow ascent across the slope toward shore.

We encountered a new southerly current as we ascended, but nothing that we couldn't easily deal with. The current shifted again as we approached our 15 foot stop, plunging downslope. Again, it wasn't anything that was hard to deal with, but the constantly changing direction of the current was interesting to say the least. We saw a healthy population of Dungeness Crabs in the sand as well as several incredibly beautiful sea anemones, including a White-Spotted Rose Anemone, Urticina lofotensis, that made me wish I had brought my camera, as did some nudibranchs and hermit crabs I saw.

We were underwater for 1 hour and 8 minutes and the dive was an extremely pleasant one! Perhaps if I whine REALLY loudly either Grateful Diver or Cheng (or BOTH!) will post some of their photos here! HINT HINT!

- John

[Grateful Diver]

OK, I can take a hint ... nothing like the spectacular shots Calvin posted, but as you say there was something living in just about every hole ...

http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/Xy8jc4Id

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Tom Nic]

Nice pics Bob!

Always love the pics! Never get tired of them...

[John Rawlings]

Cool shots! Did Cheng's video turn out OK?

[Grateful Diver]

Cool shots! Did Cheng's video turn out OK?

I don't know ... didn't get a chance to see it when I dropped her off. I'll drop it in my Photobucket account Thursday night, and post a link here.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Curt McNamee]

Great pictures Bob, sounds like you had a good dive. John took me to that wall last winter and we also had a great time. It is good to see all the little critters.

[Penopolypants]

What a cooperative little octo! Great shots as always, Bob!