Whidbey Island Critters

[LCF]

Thanks for that shot, Jan! Now I'll be on the look for the little white "umbrellas" in the eelgrass, and when I find them, I'll know what they are.

Funny that the hooded nudis are winter creatures there; at Edmonds, they seem to teem through the spring and summer.

[Dusty2]

Thanks for that shot, Jan! Now I'll be on the look for the little white "umbrellas" in the eelgrass, and when I find them, I'll know what they are.

Funny that the hooded nudis are winter creatures there; at Edmonds, they seem to teem through the spring and summer.

Maybe that's where they go when they leave whidby.

[Dusty2]

Bummer, Something always seems to fail when you find something interesting. 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:

Thank's Jan, Guess I haven't been where they are laying before. Maybe they need somewhere the currents and storms don't get to the eelgrass beds

[Jan K]

Exploring local Whidbey waters, large boulder off Baby Island sparked interest when it appeared on the side scan sonar, so it was only natural to see what it looks like eye to eye. As I descended to the sandy bottom which stretches all around it, I found many Orange sea pens. The rock itself is covered with Sugar wrack kelp and few Plumose anemones, Sunflowers stars and one Bicolored nudibranch (Janolus fuscus). Not enough to keep my attention so I returned to the Sea pens where Striped nudibranch (Armina californica), Dungeness crabs and more sea stars provided shallow water (@40 feet) entertainment. Strobe still acting up...

[Jan K]

my date with wolfie ...

[Tom Nic]

Nice pic Jan! Gorgeous as usual!

"Flabby and Lumpy" Boy, there is a description of males if I ever heard one...

Janna uses a "shape" template to tell the difference... Males have a large "triangular" face, with the wide angle at the bottom, females have a rounder oval face. Of course there are color and size differences, and if they're in a den it's not hard to tell, but... forgive me Janna, if I misrepresented you there... I think I got it right!

[Jan K]

There is still not a final verdict on this slug ID, but the opinion of some experts leans towards color variation of the normally yellow Monterey dorid... I found three of them at Keystone Jetty on Sunday, and did find one individual couple years back..

[dwashbur]

The shape of the one in the upper picture actually looks more like a Heath's, which I've seen before in this sort of white variation. But the lower one is shaped more like the Monterey, so that leaves me saying

[Jan K]

The shape of the one in the upper picture actually looks more like a Heath's, which I've seen before in this sort of white variation. But the lower one is shaped more like the Monterey, so that leaves me saying

They are pictures of the same slug.. I was not sure, so I asked experts, they suggested collecting specimen and cut them up..
I think I stick with White Lemon and let it live...

[dwashbur]

I quite agree about letting it live. I wouldn't want somebody cutting me up to determine whether I was a dog or monkey - uh, I mean - well, anyway..........

[Jan K]

My erratic strobe started to work again, I returned to Holmes Harbor to see if I can get some more pictures of the Hooded nudies and their eggs. What I found was visibility of less then two feet, the Eel grass patch where the Hoodies reside covered in water filled with "snot" planktonic soup.. So I swim out into deeper water, once I got beneath 20 feet, the water cleared up, but there isn't much to see besides sandy slope. But I found almost a dozen large Pink tritonias. It is interesting to note, that unlike its relative, the Diamond back tritonia (Tritonia festiva) I never found a small, juvenile Pink Tritonia (Tritonia diomedea). The pink beauties were wandering all over the sand, no Sea pen in sight. A s I was checking out the slugs, I saw a fast moving Sunflower star on a collision course with one of the Tritonias. So I follow the star, curious what will happen. In the past encounters between this voracious eater and nudibranchs, the star surprisingly backed off. I saw it happen with the Red dendronotid (Dendronotus rufus) and the Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch (Aeolidia papillosa). This encounter was different. When the two eye less and brainless animals met, there was a short pause in movement as they "checked" each other, and then the slug catapulted itself up and started to swim away in amazing fashion, flexing its body, managing very effectively to distance itself from the sea star. I was so impressed with the show that I switched my still camera from Manual photo to the Movie mode. The quality is not there as I was using only my spotting light for illumination, but I hope it gives you some idea what it looked like.. This is the first time I try to include a video clip, I hope it works..



and the video:
http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m147 ... aswims.flv

[Tom Nic]

Nice! I did not know they did that! Now we can add "Undulating Tritonia's" to our list along with "Pole-vaulting Clams".

Boy, those Sunflower Stars really keep the undersea world hopping, don't they?!

Great sequence Jan!

-Tom Nic

[Sounder]

Jan, you're just really one of those "always in the right place at the right time" kind of guys!!

[Nwbrewer]

The pictures do not do justice to what is shown in the video. That's really cool, thanks fo rposting that Jan.

[Jan K]

I don't know the name of the "long hair" brown growth now covering most of the floating docks , but it sure makes search for critters so much harder..

[dwashbur]

I suspect the presence of that ciona is a cause for concern, as well...

[Pez7378]

I suspect the presence of that ciona is a cause for concern, as well...

Based on my limited knowledge, I don't think that's an invasive species Dave.

[Pez7378]

I suspect the presence of that ciona is a cause for concern, as well...

Based on my limited knowledge, I don't think that's an invasive species Dave.

Oops my bad. ciona savignyi is the bad guy, but I thought they had specks on them and a scalloped edge around the opening? Whatever, Jan makes it look nice.

[dwashbur]

I suspect the presence of that ciona is a cause for concern, as well...

Based on my limited knowledge, I don't think that's an invasive species Dave.

Oops my bad. ciona savignyi is the bad guy, but I thought they had specks on them and a scalloped edge around the opening? Whatever, Jan makes it look nice.

If you look closely at the image you can see the yellow spots around the edge of the taller siphon, and the general shape plus the different siphon lengths pretty well establishes that it's the invasive species. It does look nice, until you get a situation with it like some parts of Hood Canal

[Sounder]

(sigh) ](*,)... you must look closer Pez-son.

[dwashbur]

Some of the official invasive-watchers will probably want to know the precise location of that guy so they can deal with it...

[WylerBear]

Jan is one of those invasive-watchers and has probably already dealt with it.

[Jan K]

Searching the internet, I came across an interesting "fact" on site called: Ask a marine scientist. So I included that tidbit of information onto my dive report page. But since it sounded little bit outlandish, I asked our very own expert Greg Jensen and he graciously clarified that statement. Here is the truth:
It's true that their excretory organs open at the base of their antennae, but not all waste goes out that way- they poop from the end of their abdomen. And the urine they produce is not really like the nasty stuff we make. We use it to get rid of excess nitrogen, whereas most of their excess nitrogen is lost through their gills. They use their excretory organs to get rid of excess water and ions, such as magnesium and potassium."
Thank you Greg.

[airsix]

Jan, that is a beautiful picture, and very interesting information.
-Ben

[Jan K]

Thank you Ben, glad you like it Here are pics some from the next day dive...
The Sunday weather had everything in it. Rain, snow and sunshine, at sea level. In late April. We departed Langley marina aboard the aluminum dream dive boat and crossed the Saratoga Passage, following the shores of Camano Island to Onamac Point where we dove the artificial reef. It was my fist ever dive there, the first fifteen feet were marred by what looked like red tide, below that the visibility improved to about fifteen. The muck above made it almost look like a night dive. There were Pink tritonia slugs all over the place, Plumose anemones, some Lingcods and Copper rockfish. I like it there, I would like to come when the visibility is better and more daylight reaches the concrete structures... Enjoy my snapshots of Onamac ..