First find of the day came from within the Cabin Cruiser. As usual, I wandered as far into the boat as I could, snapped a picture of a Red Irish Lord on the way.
But the interestingness didn't stop there. A ways up the hill, we found this sad sight.
Awesome finds at TTN!
Awesome finds at TTN!
So for the first time in, like three or four months, dad and I FINALLY got in the water, heading down to check things out at TTN. It was a rather interesting dive, as we're both incredibly out of practice as well as adjusting our equipment. Dad was diving his first dive in a new suit and I had to remove a couple pounds of weight at the last minute, leaving me slightly overbalanced to the left. It was only a 30 min dive, but we found AWESOMENESS!!!
First find of the day came from within the Cabin Cruiser. As usual, I wandered as far into the boat as I could, snapped a picture of a Red Irish Lord on the way.
But the best find of the day was just sitting nice and calmly on what I'm calling the dashboard of the boat. Something I've rarely seen a full picture of. A two foot Pacific Cod! (Gadus macrocephalus)
This guy was just sitting there on the dashboard! I've never heard of a cod taking shelter like that, but he looked pretty comfy. I tried to wave dad over to get a look, but unfortunately, my movements disturbed him. He turned around, headed out one of the windows, then was just GONE. I swear, this Cod has the power of teleportation cause I didn't even see his little tail disappearing into the distance.
But the interestingness didn't stop there. A ways up the hill, we found this sad sight.
Not sure what might have killed this poor seal. It didn't look very old, it couldn't have been more than three to four feet in length. The body was uninjured from what we could see, I can only glimpse a bit of flesh missing from the foreflipper. I can only guess that it died either of natural causes or from some kind of fatal head injury. Either way, the starfish were FLOCKING. Not only were there the stars already there, but looking up the hill I saw at least half a dozen more stars making their way down.
First find of the day came from within the Cabin Cruiser. As usual, I wandered as far into the boat as I could, snapped a picture of a Red Irish Lord on the way.
But the best find of the day was just sitting nice and calmly on what I'm calling the dashboard of the boat. Something I've rarely seen a full picture of. A two foot Pacific Cod! (Gadus macrocephalus)
This guy was just sitting there on the dashboard! I've never heard of a cod taking shelter like that, but he looked pretty comfy. I tried to wave dad over to get a look, but unfortunately, my movements disturbed him. He turned around, headed out one of the windows, then was just GONE. I swear, this Cod has the power of teleportation cause I didn't even see his little tail disappearing into the distance.
But the interestingness didn't stop there. A ways up the hill, we found this sad sight.
Not sure what might have killed this poor seal. It didn't look very old, it couldn't have been more than three to four feet in length. The body was uninjured from what we could see, I can only glimpse a bit of flesh missing from the foreflipper. I can only guess that it died either of natural causes or from some kind of fatal head injury. Either way, the starfish were FLOCKING. Not only were there the stars already there, but looking up the hill I saw at least half a dozen more stars making their way down.
Re: Awesome finds at TTN!
Thats sad, usually we start seeing a lot more dead seals as boating season ramps up. I have seen them sliced nose to tail by boat props. 
I do have opinions of my own,,,very strong opinions!,, I just don't allways agree with them.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
Re: Awesome finds at TTN!
I'm sure some of the professional biologists can comment with more expertise, but I talked to a marine mammal specialist in encountering several dead pinnipeds on a dive in Monterey last year, and he said that the increased population has produced so many offspring that mortality is more apparent. 
Happy to be alive.
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Biodiversity_Guy
- Extreme Diving Machine
- Posts: 449
- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 11:30 pm
Re: Awesome finds at TTN!
Great spot on the Pacific cod. Nice to see them starting to come back. They use to be (pre 1980) one of the most common fish in Puget Sound.
Re: Awesome finds at TTN!
Really? I've seen several pictures. I think they were of Pacific Cods... They could've been Tomcods.