Northwest Dive Club

The Black & White Pens are so cool! Very nice shot.

Oh, I love the way the cartoon blends into the photography on this one, Jan!

I've only done the Fingers twice, but neither time did we see a whole lot of life. The structure is interesting, though.

Revisited Lagoon Point waters and found that not only the Hedgpeth"s Sapsuckers are still there, but that they are making sure that there be more of them in the future

I gotta wonder how many of those things I've swam over and dismissed as a kelp leaf ... as usual, great pics, Jan ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Good grief those are well-disguised!!!

Good grief, Are you sre there's a critter there! I don't think I'd know it if I saw it.

I agree, they are hard to see, who knows how many times in past years I passed over them. Even now, they look more like something in a salad bowl then slugs.
Here is another critter I had hard time to see. Not because it is small, actually this mollusk is larger then most mussels I've ever seen, it just looks like a piece of rock. What got my attention was the straight line intersecting that "rock" which is of course the opening, that separated the two halves..

They sure do look like rocks!

Hey! What happened to the poor Blood Star upside down on the bottom there? I noticed a lot of them last Saturday standing way high up on their legs....and we know what THAT means!!

- Janna

nwscubamom wrote: Hey! What happened to the poor Blood Star upside down on the bottom there? I noticed a lot of them last Saturday standing way high up on their legs....and we know what THAT means!! - Janna

the fallen star is probably my fault, trying to get different angle of the mussel. I don't thing THAT was so strenuous that it make it fall asleep afterwards..

Definitely not a rectus- wrong color, shape, texture and habitat. They live in sand and mud and are all or mostly buried. This looks like a big gnarly Mytilus californianus- usually not in the sound but not unheard of.

OK, thanks Greg, I stay corrected - here is a California Mussel, it fooled me

And from the hard to ID mussel to more colorful critters :

New look.. OK
I venture away a little bit from Whidbey Island to nearby waters of Gedney Island ..

Ooh, I love vermilion rockfish. It's always such a lovely surprise to get down into dark, deep water, and suddenly come upon this brilliant red fish!

After one month of diving elsewhere, I returned for a dive to Keystone, yes, still a great place to dive ...
I spotted something on the end of hydroid, not having Dusty's eagle eyesight I just pointed at it and hoped
for the best. Juvenile Dendronotus albus, which of course, I would never guess. I had help from the experts
on this one.. Couple adults were grazing nearby, much easier to spot..

more from the Keystone dive..

Not exactly Whidbey critters, but you can see Whidbey from here ...

Jan - those stars are beautiful aren't they? They are definitely near the top of my list of favorite critters. I've been wondering what you could possibly come up with to make them more interesting to look at and couldn't think of anything - but I should never have doubted you - your diver entangled in Basket Star arms is excellent! It made me laugh and reminded me of just how much fun I had that day.

whatevah wrote:your diver entangled in Basket Star arms ....

Oh. it was a superb day of diving, thank you so much to let me tag along ...

The second dive of the day was also very nice, back on the Whidbey territory.
(This is a double post) Janna started the Deception Pass thread first ..

Jan, I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I think your pages are actually getting even more creative and more beautiful as you go along!

LCF wrote:Jan, I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I think your pages are actually getting even more creative and more beautiful as you go along!

Now that is what I call a compliment! Thank you. Maybe it has to do with new locations I was able to visit lately , inspiration fed by new encounters ?

Waters are getting real murky on top on the east side of Whidbey. Yesterday I was invited
to join trio of locals for a dive at Camano Island, across from the LAngley marina,
once we got deeper, visibility improved, but it gets dark down there and it feels like
a night dive. I did not find any new critters, but what we did find was colorful enough.

I love the "grrrr" face on the cartoon diver!

-Valerie

Second dive close to Pebble Beach..