Fox Island WW

[Dusty2]

Did fox island west wall today with Scubie Doo, & Mpenders, who had offered to show me and my Buddy Kim for a dive at FIWW around noon today. A first for Kim and I.

The weather was sunny and by the time everyone got there it had warmed considerably. Or I just did getting all that gear on.
When we entered the viz was a nice 20' or so and we found the wall without problems. For me though it wasn't about the wall it was about the nudies and they were there as promised. Heading out mike was a bit ahead of me and he started spotting nudies right away. the first up was a nice pink tritonia, then a stripped nudie and another big pink then we started spotting Giants. The first one was a bright orange and from then on they were all white. I watched and shot probably 8 or 10 without any luck getting a kill then moved up to the wall. Didn't really see many nudies close in to the wall except a couple of leopards but there were lots of rock fish. When I started to get low on air I signaled Kim and we headed back uphill a bit early because we were both new to the site and wanted a buffer in case our nav skills failed us. We no more than started up when I spotted a giant nudie about 5" from a tube anemone and put on the brakes and dropped right next to them. Switched on movie mode and put on my diffuser just in time to watch it touch the anemone and pull back and start rising up to strike. I got the whole sequence recorded and we surfaced about 15 yards east of the entry with about 800 psi. So, Success! So cool to get to watch the whole sequence and actually record it. It's late now but I'll try to post a video tomorrow.

[LCF]

That's wonderful! Can't wait for the video. I'd love to get to watch the whole attack sequence.

[Scubie Doo]

You're next Lynne

We did have a very nice dive. Saw several "attacks" including a missed strike.

Great diving with Rich, Kim, and Mike! I look forward to checking out the video... and pics.

[Tom Nic]

Yay! So much fun to witness!

[Dusty2]

OK here is the video, I am no cinematographer so it's not the greatest but it's what I got. [youtube]http://youtu.be/2TGqp8an4qA[/youtube]

[Dusty2]

Here are some of the stills.

my token fish

and my token crab.

[Octoloco]

That's awesome Rich! I've heard about this action but I've never witnessed it. Now I can at least say I've seen it..

Nice job on the videography too!

[Scubie Doo]

Great job Rich! I took some video too. I am trying to get creative with the editing, so I will post mine soon :-) Since I spent most my time on video, I only got a few stills. I will get those up soon too.

[Scubie Doo]

Here's my video, sorry for the shaky video at the beginning. Hopefully you don't get seasick

https://vimeo.com/57400208

And here is one of a couple of pics. Not a stellar day with the stills.

Notice the nudibranch is eating this anemone's neighbor... poor thing.

[Jan K]

Very nice show, there is definitely an advantage to video to capture what is going on.
Thanks for sharing.

[Tom Nic]

Funny, I've never seen one "miss" at first like that!

[LCF]

As I was watching Dusty's video, I was thinking about what an amazing thing it is that the animal can plan a fairly complex movement with a very precise target almost entirely by chemosensing. Apparently it doesn't always work, which doesn't surprise me.

[Scubie Doo]

Funny, I've never seen one "miss" at first like that!

Yeah, I thought it was in a bad position. It really missed on that attempt.

BTW - Thanks for sharing your experience with these stalking nudis last year. If it wasn't for those posts, I would have never even known to watch for this. Cool stuff!

[Tom Nic]

It seems that the Giants are "down current" of the anemone, and sense their prey as they get closer. When the just lightly touch an anemone tentacle they immediately recoil slightly (to keep from alerting the anemone?) and then proceed to execute the "rearing up" maneuver that enables them to come down on the center of the anemone. They invariably get sucked into the tube when the anemone withdraws. I doubt that they "eat" the entire creature... at least I don't see empty tubes there afterwards. I'm sure someone has done a cool doctoral study on the whole thing!

[Tom Nic]

Laura and I will hit this site Friday morning... hoping they are still around!

[Scubie Doo]

I agree Tom. In the slow-motion footage, it almost looks like it targets one tentacle to "guide" it into the tube.

[Scubie Doo]

Laura and I will hit this site Friday morning... hoping they are still around!

Make sure Laura brings her video gear Will you have your new rig by then?

[LCF]

It did look as though it touched the anemone -- you'd think the anemone would do an immediate withdrawal on that contact.

[Tom Nic]

Laura and I will hit this site Friday morning... hoping they are still around!

Make sure Laura brings her video gear Will you have your new rig by then?

The new rig arrived today...

However, I don't have strobes yet, and I can't find my tray...

I may... but not sure yet. I will probably bring both P&S cameras along, one set up for video, the other for stills. My P&S has always been somewhat inadequate for shots of the giants because of the poor depth of field, but we shall see.

[fnerg]

Now we must need David Attenborough to do a voice over!

Seriously, if I were to do a PNW nature documentary, that shot would be in it.

[sekhmet]

Tom: awesome that your new camera is here, it is the baby of my Olympus PEN so it will be like family shoot out. As far as video, I'll try, my videos are usually pretty bad :( oh I'm excited for furlough Friday fox island diving!!!!! The 3.5 hour bomber run to hang with the nudis!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!