Sea Pens

[Novice]

I always loved seeing these at the aquarium as a kid but have never seen one on a dive. Anyone know good locations to view them in the north end, SJIs? What kind of conditions favor colonies?

[oldsalt]

They like sandy bottoms - normally boring substrate. I see them on the shallow area around the eelgrass at Mukilteo's Lighthouse Park. That is north of the clay walls, near the boat ramp. It doesn't take long for a herd of nudibranchs to graze them down. I'd be glad to join you there sometime. I'm easily entertained.
-Curt
-

[Jeremy]

I see them at EUP all the time when I get off the trail and go over sandy areas

[nwscubamom]

I've seen oodles of them off the Cornet Bay boat launch by Deception Pass - out where those floating docks are in the bay.
- Janna

[Tom Nic]

Fox Island West wall has juveniles by the hundreds. Go along the wall and go on beyond it over the sandy bottom. I have seen scores of adults there as well, in 40-60fsw, accompanied by the nudibranchs that prey on them.

[LCF]

If you do the Alki pipeline dive and miss the inshore portion of the pipeline to the north on the way back, you will swim over more sea pens than you could ever want to see. Unfortunately, I know this.

Which reminds me of a funny story. It was my first time diving with Airsix, and I took him to do the pipeline, and as I do about half the time, I messed up the navigation coming back. We did the "sea pen swim of shame" over the eelgrass and the Dungeness crabs and the striped nudibranchs, and the whole way, I was humiliated and fuming over having gotten lost.

We got to shore, stood up, and Ben looked at me in wonder and said, "Wow, did you see all those beautiful sea pens?" It was my first lesson on grace from Ben, but it has not been the last.

[Blow-N-Bubbles]

Sund Rock and Octo Hole ....80+ feet in the sandy areas. Last time down about 30 or so very Tall !!

[60south]

Fort Flagler, where the old pier used to be. Head straight out into Admiralty Inlet (at slack, thank you). At about 50ft it's a quill fest. Where ever you find them, look for the nudis that eat 'em.

[ljjames]

lincoln park...

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/1924925[/vimeo]

[Blow-N-Bubbles]

Tease !!

[dwashbur]

+1 for Fox Island West Wall. There's a large colony of them right at the base of the wall and beyond, and some of them are over a foot tall. Delightful!

[eliseaboo]

Depends -- are you going to spear them???

I kid I kid!! All of the above is good advice. You gotta get into boring old muck to see them, but they're found all over in sandy places. Lots of good sites up there ^^

[spatman]

Sund Rock and Octo Hole ....80+ feet in the sandy areas. Last time down about 30 or so very Tall !!

Those tall thin white ones are called "sea whips".

[Blow-N-Bubbles]

Your right Spatman ....got my paddles, pens, whips and chains mixed up again !

[Grateful Diver]

From Bellingham, head down toward Deception Pass. Pull into the Rosario Beach state park just before you get to the pass. Take the left turn that takes you into the picnic area, and park as close to the beach as you can. Off the beach, take a compass heading toward Northwest Island, and swim in that direction. Once you get to where the bottom drops below about 40 feet, you'll encounter a rather thick field of sea pens ... you won't be able to not see them.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Novice]

Cool! Thanks for all the tips guys. Curt (oldsalt), snowpacalypse canceled my Thursday dive this week. You interested in hitting Muk Lighthouse Park next thursday evening? I can get there by 615-630.

Janna, what is Cornet Bay like for diving? That is a pretty easy run for me either by car or boat (in the summer). I have had my boat in there quite a few times and never thought of diving...

[nwscubamom]

Well, to be honest, we had just dove deception pass and Ben Ure island and were coming back into the dock, when we stopped out at one of those floating docks and just jumped off for fun. So we didn't really go there to dive - it was just a stopping place on the way back in.

- Janna

[lamont]

I think south of Lowman Beach Park towards Lincoln park there should be a ton (at least there was a few years ago).

(nevermind -- laura already posted this...)

[CaptnJack]

Ewing Cove had some last time I was there (7yrs ago?). I was looking for the "artificial reef" which is marked on charts there but I don't think actually exists. Its a boat only dive.

[Tidepool Geek]

Greetings,

I can't help with suggestions on where Sea Pens are to be found but I thought some of you might be interested in an article on the life history of this animal: http://ronshimek.com/blog/ For anyone not familiar with Ron Shimek, he has a doctorate in marine biology and has been a researcher and educator at UW's Friday Harbor Lab and at the Bamfield Marine Station.

In keeping with my ignorance of sea pen locales I'd like to slightly hijack this thread by asking about sea pen locations on the North Olympic Peninsula - the closer to Port Angeles the better as I'm mainly interested in obtaining a few of them for display at the Feiro Center at some time in the future (we don't have a suitable tank at present).

Geographically yours,

Alex

[lamont]

I think there's at least one bed of them around the alki fishing reef somewhere as well? Want a scooter to explore around there...

Laura should have video of that as well...

[CaptnJack]

Greetings,

I can't help with suggestions on where Sea Pens are to be found but I thought some of you might be interested in an article on the life history of this animal: http://ronshimek.com/blog/ For anyone not familiar with Ron Shimek, he has a doctorate in marine biology and has been a researcher and educator at UW's Friday Harbor Lab and at the Bamfield Marine Station.

In keeping with my ignorance of sea pen locales I'd like to slightly hijack this thread by asking about sea pen locations on the North Olympic Peninsula - the closer to Port Angeles the better as I'm mainly interested in obtaining a few of them for display at the Feiro Center at some time in the future (we don't have a suitable tank at present).

Geographically yours,

Alex

Try on the east side of Dungeness Spit (double check that collection harvest is legal here, I don't know the NWR boundaries.)

[SeanKylgod]

I remember seeing about as many in Laura's video at Sunnyside Marina in steilacoom. There were tons of the orange Sea pens and a whole "nest" of Nudi's the size of my fist. on the down side; aside from a few flounder and some cucumbers on the bigger wreck, thats all I really saw. The Sea Pens were ~20fsw and all of them seemed to be rooted in sand. (I'm guessing the name came from their resemblance to a quill, but they look more like a sea feather than a pen to me.. ) how many people have orange quills? arent they predominantly white??

[ljjames]

West Seattle Fishing reef...

scooters recommended or all you will see is sea pens

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71NefFes14Y[/youtube]

[LCF]

There's quite an impressive bed of them off the Possession Point Park boat ramp -- Peter and I did a scooter dive there a couple of years ago, just to see what there was, and what there was was a lot of big sea pens.

I'd be careful about Cornet Bay. A lot of it is shallow and there is quite a bit of boat traffic.