Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

Thank you Valerie...

I wish I could get more of the gunnel's body in the picture, but it was not interested to make identification easier by coming out into the open...

[Vjw]

Congratulations Jan on the new find! That’s so exciting!!

[Jan K]

The snorkeling substitute to scuba I enjoyed on Sunday, could have possibly added a new critter to my list of Whidbey Island underwater residents. In the very shallow waters of Keystone Jetty, lurking out from crevice was a fish which at first glance looked like a Penpoint Gunnel. However, after looking at it on my computer screen, I noticed that in addition to missing dark bar across its eye, which is its trademark, it also sports a tiny pectoral fin which is mentioned in the guide "Coastal Fishes of the PNW" by Andy Lamb and Phil Edgell, I think I found my first ROCKWEED GUNNEL !! And since Milton Love, the author of the magnificent book "Certainly More Than You Want to Know About The Fishes of The Pacific Coast" also suggested the possibility, I am adding it to the list

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, August 18. Another meeting with friends. And again Sunday at low tide. Eric barbecued excellent veggie sausages, ScubaJess cheerful company and Mike, as always, friendly shore support. Although I could not join them in diving, I donned wetsuit and for 58 minutes snorkeled along the jetty and the kelp bed.
I forgot to mention, Happy Birthday Pat !

[Jan K]

While conducting my Sea Star Wasting survey at Langley Harbor and the scene of so many stars dying was rather depressing, I had a companion following me for most of the dive - Pacific Harbor Seal. The local fish were not too thrilled to have it around, but I didn't mind

[Sharkb8]

I saw the same thing near the T-Dock in Mulkiteo last weekend. It was disheartening with all the positive signs as of late

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor, August 12. I managed to make one dive before the tooth extraction since the DAN recommends:
"Normally, four to six weeks is sufficient time to allow for the risk of infection, provided there has been good healing and gum tissue has begun to fill in the empty socket."
What I found wasn't pretty. Wasting sea stars all over the place, too numerous to count. Most of them Mottled stars. I found only one small Sunflower star, about 3 inches across, none of the larger juveniles I saw here six weeks ago :(

[Jan K]

Keystone, August 11. I could only watch as group of my friends negotiated the slippery rocks on their way to the another underwater adventure. Congratulations ScubaJess on her 700th dive!

[Jan K]

Diver finds Lewis's moonsnail. The Moonsnail just laid eggs in the form of a collar. In the process finds its favorite meal - cockle bivalve. Cockle escapes using its long foot, flipping the moonsnail upside down in the process. Diver figures out while he finds many of cockles out on the surface instead of being buried up to their siphons as is the norm...

[Jan K]

The old wharf, better known as "The Pilings" is in my humble opinion becoming less of an attraction. Battered by last winter storms and invaded by kelp even between the inner pilings, it lost its feel as an underwater cathedral. Feels more like an obstacle course... These days I spend just a short time here before I head to the more attractive Jetty on the other end of the rope trail.

[Jan K]

Few of the Keystone Jetty residents - Lingcod colors and rockfish, some of them gravid.

[Jan K]

Yes Curt, drone shot by a fellow diver who let me use the image.
What I find interesting is that the anemone is still in the same spot for the sixteen years I have started to keep an eye on that rock.
Octopus used to live in the hole under that rock for many years. Not anymore...

[oldsalt]

I've read accounts of anemones living for many decades in aquaria - close to a century. 14 years in the wild seems reasonable. Is that a drone shot?
-Curt

[Jan K]

Are you coming to Keystone ? Or just to Pickles?

[ScubaJess]

The rock of life is looking so much better! Thanks for posting this, I love to see the changes.

I hope we can get together to dive with you on Sunday!

[Jan K]

Why returning to the same places again and again? One rock from the Keystone Jetty photographed on every dive in past years shows that changes do occur constantly, even if not noticeably, at least not during our short dive there... Only the Painted anemone seems to be a permanent resident.

[Jan K]

Wrapping up the Deception Pass dive with subjects which do not swim away when you point your camera at them

[Jan K]

Some of the Deception Pass fish. We don't have Garibaldies, but we do have Lingcod, rockfish and sculpins.

[Jan K]

Back in the home waters. First dive since California. Where else? Deception Pass!

[Jan K]

The dive at the "poster child" of Channel Islands National Park - The Arch Rock" on the eastern end of Anacapa Island was rewarding . Gorgonians are another sight absent in waters of Whidbey Island. This concludes our excursion into the California waters . I wish I had my drysuit, for three dives in a row are too hard on this old body of mine
Nevertheless, it was all worth it...

[Jan K]

Miscellany from the last day of diving at Anacapa Island.

[Jan K]

Sea hares. They are big, they are not rare, but it took a trip to California to see them with my own eyes !
It is never too late...

[Jan K]

Garibaldi, the California State Fish

[Jan K]

We did not find many nudibranchs this time, but the Spanish shawl is a beautiful one

[Penopolypants]

Those blue banded gobies are so pretty!