Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

Possession Point Fingers October 8th dive.
Some fish and scenery. Not much color in the scenery department.

[Jan K]

The rest of the Possession Point Fingers pics from the October 8th dive.
Unfortunately, the sea star wasting started to show up here too.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Park, October 11th dive.
The encounter with this little octopus has begun with three eyelashes under the eye.
Then the three eyelashes disappeared...

[Jan K]

Driftwood Park, October 11th dive.
After the octopus -
some fishies, crabs and shrimp on cucumber.

[Jan K]

Skyline October 12th dive.
The problem with identifying the little Doto slugs ...

[Jan K]

Deception Pass, October 17th dive.
Some of the male Kelp greenlings dressed up in courtship colors.
Still fighting for territory.

[Jan K]

Deception Pass, October 17th dive.
More of the critters found in the Pass.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty October 22nd dive.
Great to meet friends, above and underwater.
We all share the love of diving and many of us carry cameras to record what we see...

[Gdog]

I just love your work Jan! Thank you for sharing this!

[Jan K]

I just love your work Jan! Thank you for sharing this!

Glad you enjoy it, not always accurate, but I am trying

Few more from the Keystone October 22nd dive.
First sighting of wasting star at Keystone in a long time.

[Jan K]

October 15th dive in Lagoon Point murky waters somehow slipped by in the string of dives ...
Here are some of the sights I took pictures of in the first 5 to 8 feet of water. Everything below that - dismal 2 feet of visibility.
The Bull kelp doesn't grow here. It floated into the canal from far away, carried by the tide currents.

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor October 23rd dive.

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor October 23rd dive.
Some of the fish residents I met.

[Jan K]

Holmes Harbor October 26th dive.
On this dive I found only three Pycnos, but at least, they were still healthy.
The Sugar wrack kelp here is in bad shape.

[Jan K]

Holmes Harbor October 26th dive.
And the rest of the encounters. Burrowing seas cucumbers,
Featherduster, outboard motor suspended in midwater and mating Graceful crabs.

[Tidepool Geek]

Jan, you never cease to amaze! Beautiful images as always but I don't think that I've ever heard of the White Dotted Cucumber and I'm positive that I've never heard of the Roll-Top Tubeworm.
Keep up the good work!

[Jan K]

Jan, you never cease to amaze! Beautiful images as always but I don't think that I've ever heard of the White Dotted Cucumber and I'm positive that I've never heard of the Roll-Top Tubeworm.
Keep up the good work!

Thank you for your kind words. The only place I find these critters is in Holmes Harbor. The Roll-tp tubeworms can be seen all the time, the cucumbers I found only three times in all the year I dived there.

[Jan K]

Skyline October 28th dive.
Early morning dive, recent rain brought lot of silt into Skyline waters.

[Jan K]

Skyline October 28th dive.
Slugs revisited.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Pond #1. October 29th dive.
The Moon jellies are still there, but their size is smaller. Only very few large ones.
Also, all the "slime" hair algae disappeared, revealing the siphons of thousands of tiny Japan mussels, an invasive specie.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Pond #2, October 29th dive.
Opening up the series of snapshot of operation which resulted in creation of the ponds. Keystone Sand and Gravel Company. I don't have any more info on the company. Google search did not offer anything, the name is still out there , but not associated with Whidbey Island. The curious thing has puzzled me from the first time I dived the two ponds, how different they are from each other. This time - while one has Moon jellies, the other has none, lots of Bubble shell slugs in #2, none in #1. And so it goes.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, November 9, 2022 dive.
First dive after the windstorm which devastated the power grid on South Whidbey.
The water column still filled with fine silt.
Kelp greenling male guarding eggs.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty November 9th dive.
Wrap up of yet another jetty dive.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Park, November 10th dive.
There is not as much diversity of marine life here, compared to the nearby Keystone Jetty,
the bottle field is home to numerous to many Red octopuses and they are always fun to watch.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Park November 10th dive.
The rest of the story. Wolfie, cucumber, shrimp and some fish...