Whidbey Island Critters

Fish & Invertebrate sightings and descriptions, hosted by resident NWDC ID expert Janna Nichols (nwscubamom).
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LCF
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

Post by LCF »

Beautiful, as usual, Jan!
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Jan K
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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LCF wrote:Beautiful, as usual, Jan!
Thank you, I do appreciate the feedback. Sometimes I think maybe I am just posting more of the same stuff, over and over again.... :dontknow:
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John Rawlings
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Thanks for posting the shots of Gedney Reef, Jan! I haven't dived there since my buddy sold his boat a few years back. That reef is HUGE and just keeps going and going in a series of big piles. One of my favorite things to do was to peer off into the murk looking for a bright spot - that bright spot would always be yet ANOTHER huge rock pile covered with Plumose anemones.

I gotta go back!

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Jan K
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Yes John, I would like to go back too, so far I saw only a small portion of it. Unfortunately, it takes a boat to get there :crybaby:
But I did get to go on another boat dive last Sunday, checking out new territory at Saratoga Passage on the east side of Whidbey Island. It was cold, but vis was pretty good.
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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No, Jan, I don't think any of us ever get tired of your pages. And if you look back over them, you can also see that what you've done has evolved over time. The latest pages, with the over/under shots, the incorporation of the charts and the photos of the ships, or the sonar images, are much more complex, and you continue to pack more and more visual information in your posts.

One of these days I am going to figure out how to get a publisher interested in what you are doing.
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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The interaction between the ribbon worm and the tube worm looks very interesting- if he's attacking it, I would think the tubeworm would have retracted. There is a local snail (Trichotropis) that steals food from tubeworms by sucking it out just as it is about to go in the mouth, and does it without causing the worm to retract. I wonder if the worm is doing something similar. Was his proboscis out? Was he in contact with the worm?
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Greg Jensen wrote:The interaction between the ribbon worm and the tube worm looks very interesting- if he's attacking it, I would think the tubeworm would have retracted. There is a local snail (Trichotropis) that steals food from tubeworms by sucking it out just as it is about to go in the mouth, and does it without causing the worm to retract. I wonder if the worm is doing something similar. Was his proboscis out? Was he in contact with the worm?
Good observation Greg. Unfortunately, my P&S camera is lousy autofocus machine in macro mode and none of the closeups came out. I was surprised that the tubeworm, which readily disappears when I try to take picture and it senses the focusing beam would stay out while this worrm had its head right in the smack of its plume. And yes, the long pink proboscis was out, I wish I had a better picture to show it.
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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And to brighten your weekend, little bit of hanky panky by the clowns at Keystone ...

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John Rawlings
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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I'm blushing!!!!
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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I love the looks on the "afterglow" smoking nudi's; hilarious! Thanks Jan, you've made my day :supz:
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Jan K
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Zen Diver 2 wrote:I love the looks on the "afterglow" smoking nudi's; hilarious! Thanks Jan, you've made my day :supz:
Thanks, BTW, how is your hand healing? Must be hard not to be able to dive...
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Jan K wrote:
Thanks, BTW, how is your hand healing? Must be hard not to be able to dive...
Hurts a bit more than anticipated but thankfully is most noticeable only at night. Cast comes off in 2.5 weeks and then the real work of rehab for it begins :pale: Hopefully back in the water by end of May (ish). First time since I started diving that my gear has not only been completely DRY, but also STOWED :-({|= On the other hand, I've been able to finally get caught up on dive mags and other reading, and have had time for loads of movies, so I guess it's not all bad (and, I just finished my taxes and the return is paying for cave training this fall, so I'm excited!).

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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Great post Jan! (...although you just shot the family nature of this board all to heck) :laughing3:

Hmmm.... lends new meaning to the term "right handed". =D>
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Eat and be eaten..
The realities of life down at the Keystone Jetty.
( and elsewhere)......
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

Post by Dusty2 »

Great info Jan, Seems mother nature has no lack of cleanup crews! Recycling is the key word. Little if nothing goes to waste in the natural world.
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Comparing to past seasons,this year Langley Tire Reef did not do too well in the Lingcod egg mass department. In spite of the No Fishing for Lingcod season, they seem to be disappearing from their nesting sites... And without the guardian male, the eggs are doomed... :pale:

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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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We returned to the Gedney Island barges for another dive. After some research I found that they were used as breakwater protection for the harbor. There were total of five barges, although not all of them floating there at the same time. Like the tire breakwater design from not so distant Langley, they became a welcome home for sea creatures and an interesting place to dive ...
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Jan, I LOVE your avatar! It's perfect! :supz:

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Jan K
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Zen Diver 2 wrote:Jan, I LOVE your avatar! It's perfect! :supz: -Valerie
Thank you Valerie, I just had to add something to celebrate the NWDC new look !
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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This what I would rather see at Langly with those eggs
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Jan K
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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John Rawlings wrote:Thanks for posting the shots of Gedney Reef, Jan! I haven't dived there since my buddy sold his boat a few years back. That reef is HUGE and just keeps going and going in a series of big piles. One of my favorite things to do was to peer off into the murk looking for a bright spot - that bright spot would always be yet ANOTHER huge rock pile covered with Plumose anemones. I gotta go back! - John
So I found my way back to the Gedney Reef. Different area yielded different terrain. Instead of man made concrete slabs,
rock piles and loops of cables, providing just the right environment to snarl fishing lines and lures.. And yes, the guiding beacons of white Plumose anemones ....

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Jan K
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Brown algae is covering the Eel grass, Hooded nudibranchs (Melibe leonina) are laying eggs like mad, must be the end of their stay here in Holmes Harbor. Two years ago, I noticed that after a long winter stay with hundreds of them colonizing the Eel grass patch. it wasn't until the very end when the eggs appeared in great numbers. This was one of the dives when my strobe failed... #-o

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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

Post by dwashbur »

I love nudibranchs of all kinds, but these guys have to the the most fascinating of them all. Great shots!
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Bummer, Something always seems to fail when you find something interesting. :angryfire: How about posting some egg pix. I don't think I have seen hooded eggs before

Tis the season. Soon that brown yuk will be covering everything again making it difficult to find our little critters in the shallower waters.

I'll be back in PT Friday Maybe I can get over that way and you can show this and some of the other sites on the island.
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Re: Whidbey Island Critters

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Dusty2 wrote:Bummer, Something always seems to fail when you find something interesting. :angryfire: How about posting some egg pix. I don't think I have seen hooded eggs before
Dave, I read your report on diving the Idaho pond :), I am affraid that soon we will be getting our share of planktonic soup to look through..
Dusty, here are some of the shots of Hooded (Lion) nudibranch eggs from the 2006 season:
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