Whidbey Island Critters

[LCF]

This gentleman, Richard Salas, published his extraordinarily beautiful book on the Channel Islands by taking subscriptions until he made up the cost of publishing the book -- it took less than six months to get enough pre-purchases.

Just sayin' . . .

[Jan K]

After all those dives at Keystone and still finding a new critter to add to my list.

[LCF]

Jan, you once again blow me away. The things you see! If I ever see anybody say they don't want to dive the same site again because they're tired of it, I'm going to refer them to this thread.

[WylerBear]

Wow! Very cool! Nice work as always, Jan.

[Jan K]

Thanks for your kind words.
I am sure you have seen the sea urchins with stuff tucked on them.
Here are some theories why they do it...

[LCF]

Thank you for researching this question! I have often wondered whether the "stuff" that sticks to them is just stuck on the spines, or is there for a reason.

[Scubak]

I so love your postings and photos and pages.
I wish you would do a volume 2, 3 and so on!!!
Kirsten

[LCF]

I had a light bulb moment in the middle of the night last night . . . Jan isn't hot on doing a book, because it is a lot of work and up front expense, for probably very little eventual return.

But how hard would it be to create a website where all these beautiful pages could be loaded and INDEXED, so that someone looking for information on fish wouldn't have to wade through four pages of nudibranch pictures? I asked Peter, but he said he had no idea what would be involved in doing that. Anybody here with that kind of experience? Would it be hard? I'd sure be willing to volunteer for anything time-consuming and requiring no specific computer skills

[Jan K]

Why is my Canadian friend Mike beaming?
His first time in the Deception Pass wonderland









And some of the fishermen we had to pass by actually caught salmon ..

[LCF]

Oh, Jan, that third picture up is simply stunning! I am such a nut for color . . .

That's an exciting find on the crab. I'm sure you're letting the folks who write the books know about it!

[Jan K]

Sea stars revisited ...

[Tom Nic]

Wow. Who knew?

Thanks Jan for bringing to our attention another wonder of the life we see on almost every dive but don't always notice.

Much appreciated....

[diverden]

Wow. Who knew?

Not I! Thanks Jan!

[renoun]

Oh wow, now I know that I saw a Fragile Ruffed Scaleworm. It was at Cove II on top of a tire in about 40fsw. It looked so odd that I had almost convinced myself that it was a decomposing leg from a sea star and didn't even try to ID it. Makes perfect sense now.

[Jan K]

Wrap-up of this tide cycle of Pass dives

[LCF]

I think I'm going to be turning over a lot of starfish in the near future . . . what an education this thread is.

[Jan K]

Lazy stroll through the kelp forest of Keystone ...

Large chunks of planktonic soup and pieces of seaweed mar otherwise good visibility.

No eelgrass here, so the Isopod picks other seaweed

Plenty of tiny Lumpsuckers, but cannot find any big enough to get a decent photo with my P&S

My buddy Paul has a DSLR, but doesn't post here :(

[Blaiz]

paul cursed me by saying there were lumpies out there, and sure enough, i found one.... but didn't have a camera on me

curses! curses!

[LCF]

Lovely photos of the light coming through the kelp. I took a Chicago diver to Titlow the other day, and I was amazed to find a whole bunch of kelp there (I had never seen it there before). I kept trying to make arm motions to say, "Look at the amazing vista", but I don't think it's as impressive when the viz is less than ten feet

[Jan K]

Adding another critter to my list did not go the path I envisioned. When I spotted the small
Flattop crab and started to zoom in for better angle, Scalyhead sculpin darted in and grabbed
my photo model and ate it !

[Jan K]

It took me nine years to find a snailfish, now I see one on every dive. Probably the same one
I hope it grows bigger .

GPO hiding inside the rocks of the jetty...

[LCF]

Wow -- how do researchers figure that kind of thing out? I suppose it makes sense that a creature with no bone structure would have to have some way to keep its eyes roughly level . . . mine came that way.

[Jan K]

Labor Day weekend - Keystone. Glorious weather

Although "only" a worm, happy to add new species to my list ...

[oldsalt]

Jan: Is the dorsal red blood vessel the distinguishing characterisitic? If not, how would I distinguish it from similar nereid worms? Again, good job.
-Curt

[Jan K]

Jan: Is the dorsal red blood vessel the distinguishing characterisitic? If not, how would I distinguish it from similar nereid worms? Again, good job.
-Curt

Curt,it is my guess. I could not find much in the books I have.
Maybe Leslie can comment with her expertise on the subject.