Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

Some more from the Pass. The good visibility at Keystone this Labor Day weekend did not materialized
at Deception Pass this tidal cycle ...

[Dusty2]

Nice work Jan, I love grunties. :luv:

[Jan K]

And wrapping up the three days of Pass diving.
When I took the picture, I thought the sculpin was having a meal, but at home on the computer screen
it looks like the skeleton managed to escape the bite by latching onto the lip and although the sculpin
was darting around with the meal soooo close, it was unable to bite it

[Tom Nic]

That is beautiful and unusual coloring on the Penpoint!

[Norris]

So glad you posted this Jan. I saw one of those shrimp on a piece of kelp the other night and every time I placed my finger close to it, it would probe me with the two ends. It was really interesting and I had no idea how I was going to hunt down what I saw.

[Jan K]

Shore entry during salmon season :

This Wolf is still toothless

Somewhat older neighbors ...

[Dusty2]

Nice shot Jan. I like the one with the sculpin and the shrimp. Poor guy, Kinda like the horse and carrot.

I went by the puallup river heading up to Redondo early this morning and the fisher persons where elbow to elbow and there were zero boat and trailer spots to park. Not a good time to dive near a fishing spot!

[Jan K]

Thanks Dusty. The Keystone parking lot is filled with boat trailers and all kinds of vehicles towing them, at least the part we dive in is No Fishing zone, so kelp in the thing to watch for not to get snarled by ...And kelp doesn't have hooks ...
This little sea star was described last year, so it now has its own scientific name. In Andy Lamb's book it is still listed as Henricia sp.nov.

[Jan K]

After three weeks of diving elsewhere on Whidbey, I revisited Langley Tire Reef.
The Sunflower stars are still the dominant critters .

I found Sailfin sculpin, the creature of the dark, actually out in the daylight ...

[Jan K]

Also at Langley, this unusual ( for me) colored White-lined dirona aka Frosted aka Alabaster nudibranch :

compared to others I have seen in the past

[nwscubamom]

Look at all that color variation!! I think you have a record setter there though.
- Janna

[Tom Nic]

A gorgeous pink!

(Unless of course I'm color blind and messing up the color.)

[Jan K]

Another one of the "hard to see" critters...

[Dusty2]

Wow what a beautiful find on the pink alabaster nudie! I'd love to see that one become more common.

[Jan K]

Looking at what sea stars eat

[Chenari]

And this is why I always laugh when people talk about nature being inherently good. XD

[oldsalt]

A bypasser admonished me for taking crab. "How can you possibly kill innocent crab?" I rejoined,"Innocent crab? Hardly. These are unrepentant killers, even conscienceless cannibals." Hey, I can be as anthropomorphic as anyone. Starfish, crab,or dysentery inducing amoeba, they survive the only way they can. (And yes, I know about dysentery first hand.)
-Curt

[Jan K]

During my last dive at Langley I found Sailfin sculpin in the open, so I decided to
see how the tire reef looks for them at night, when they should be out and hunting.
I was not disappointed. Although the visibility was not that good, I found six Sailfin
sculpins wandering about ...

And I added another new fish to my list. Although they are described as common, all these time
I somehow missed to see one .

THe Roughback sculpin darts all over the sandy plain east of the tire reef

And the Stubby just sits there, not much action from it at all...

[John Rawlings]

Wow...all of a sudden something has changed for me. When I access this thread all of Jan's wonderful pics are just broken links. Previous to this I had no problem at all. I checked the other photos that are being posted by other members and they are fine....just Jan's. It seems that everyone else can view the shots, so it must just be my system.

Does anyone have any idea what might be the problem? I'd hate to not be able to see Jan's pics!

- John

[Tom Nic]

Does anyone have any idea what might be the problem? I'd hate to not be able to see Jan's pics!

- John

Try a different browser. Sometimes IE gets a little "weird"... Happens to me on Facebook from time to time. I'll just on Chrome and that usually takes care of it. I'm sure others can suggest many other of their own personal favorites when it comes to browsers - Mozilla, Firefox, etc.

[John Rawlings]

Bizarre! After at least a full day of broken links, suddenly and for no apparent reason whatsoever I can now see all of Jan's marvelous photos!

IE can most certainly behave strangely from time to time....

- John

[LCF]

Wow -- I went away for two weeks, and Jan has been diving up a storm! I really enjoyed coming home to a whole bunch of new pages to peruse.

[dwashbur]

Bizarre! After at least a full day of broken links, suddenly and for no apparent reason whatsoever I can now see all of Jan's marvelous photos!

IE can most certainly behave strangely from time to time....

- John

That's why you avoid IE and use Firefox instead. Microsoft has a tendency to fix things to the point where they don't work at all.

[Jan K]

I am on a roll, ANOTHER fish added to my list. Marbled snailfish

[Jan K]