Northwest Dive Club

Tonight I met up with Jared, a new local diver, to take him for an evening dive at Keystone. The water was a good deal more turbulent than the surface or the tide charts suggested. It blew us all over the place, which was fine, as we just, well, rode the wave. Being tossed about in the middle of the Keystone sanctuary (btw, there were crab leavings on the beach. I hate poachers! :angry: ) tends to be a little less exciting than doing the pilings or the jetty, especially since we couldn't see more than ten foggy feet. That area tends toward kelp and rocks. On one of the rocks I found a feathery thing, which I'm willing to accept as some of the general things that grow in the ocean. What caught my eye was the bumpy, different colored things which were on some of the feathery things. Any ideas, please? Jared, it turns out, has a very sharp eye. He found this tiny little critter. I had thought he was waving about the coonstripe shrimp, but then saw movement. It seems to be some sort of crab, although its movement reminded me more of a spider, rather crawly instead of crabwalky. Camouflaged red was the theme of the night. I like this decorator's green hat. I saw this fishie and thought, cool, a gunnel. But then I wasn't so sure it's a gunnel. Is it a gunnel? What kind? Haven't seen this before. I have to assume this clam was ill? It was a small little thing, which twitched only feebly. Trying to peer through the muck to navigate, I noticed a round ball of something coming at my face. The people who got out of the water just before us had seen a lumpsucker, so round = worth looking twice. Not a lumpy, but I loved watching this in real time. The water tonight seemed really cold, although the computer said it was fifty degrees. Just one of those days when the cold hits harder, I guess. Other than bad vis, erratic currents, and really cold water, I had a great time! I also nearly broke my arm patting myself on the back when I found that I had navigated us directly back to our entrance point and that I had done it with 500 pounds left in Jared's tank. Tee hee.

The crab-type thing is indeed one of our types of decorator crab; I forget its name. But as soon as you can gather a few more scuba units, you'll want to invest in Greg Jensen's book of crabs and shrimps.

The red fish, I believe is a juvenile kelp greenling. Nice catch!

The thing drifting through the water is an opalescent nudibranch, Hermissenda crassicornis. I've never seen one do that before; again, very nice catch!

Good pix!

The "feathery things" are hydroids, but I can't see enough detail to tell what the things attached to them might be.

Actually the things attached are a part of that hydroid. I think they are reproductive organs. Incidently, That hydroid is the favorite hangout for Dendronotus subramosus