Bad day to be a squid! (and other photos)

[nwscubamom]

We went to Sunnyside yesterday - did a couple dives - first one on the pipeline, and second one was supposed to be on the pipeline, but we completely missed it, so did a sand dive and wound up waaaaay south of the beach next to the rocks. Ugh.

However, cool sights were at the junction box at the start of the pipeline (where someone has placed a toilet on top!?!) - where there were a couple Northern Kelp Crabs around the rim - and one was munching on a squid! We'd seen squid eggs previously on the dive, and another diver reported seeing 100's of squid on his dive. But please tell me how a kelp crab manages to snag a squid out of the water column!



Another interesting sight was a Scaleworm on a Rose Star. There were a number of Rose Stars around, but found the worm on this one AFTER I got home and enlarged it on my computer.


I'm not sure which type of nudi this is - it was very small, and I just knew it was SOMETHING - but had to wait until I got home and blew up the image on the computer to see that it actually was a nudi.


Found a Rock Sole competely buried in the sand - only his eyes peeking out. You can see he's got a couple parasites behind the eye too.


I think this Plumose anemone is having indigestion and is throwing up the kelp. It's all covered in slime...but it looks like a funky vase with a wilted flower.


A few more pics are posted here if you wanna see the rest:
http://nwgeogirl.smugmug.com/gallery/82 ... 0128_FFtZo

Stay on the Sunnyside of life,

- Janna

[ljjames]

isn't the anemone throwing up ulva lactuca (AKA sea lettuce)? I can't quite tell in the picture but it looks suspiciously green (I've heard that soft green stuff that 'gets on everything at end of the dive' called kelp twice now in a week, which is not correct to my limited knowledge)

[Dusty2]

The squid had a good day that ended bad. Most squid die after mating so what likely happened is the crab was just lucky and was the first to stumble on the remains.

And yes that is sea lettuce

[nwscubamom]

isn't the anemone throwing up ulva lactuca (AKA sea lettuce)? I can't quite tell in the picture but it looks suspiciously green (I've heard that soft green stuff that 'gets on everything at end of the dive' called kelp twice now in a week, which is not correct to my limited knowledge)

Good point, Laura! Being extremely deficient in my algae-ID skills, I think I often just resort to calling everything that's leafy and brown, red or green: Kelp. But really, after examining my Seaweed books, the overall common term for whatever-you-don't-know, should be Algae.

And I can't quite seem to find in my books where algae/seaweed and kelp are differentiated from eachother. I suspect that kelp is just a subset of algae/seaweed. I'll have to inquire amongst my algae-oriented biologist friends.

And yeah, I totally agree that what the anemone is spitting out, is Ulva - Sea Lettuce.

- Janna

[dwashbur]

I usually say either "vegetation," or if that feels like too many syllables, "seaweed" :geek:

[Gooch]

Nice pix Janna! Dea mentioned she saw a crab munching on a squid but I missed it. That nudi is very cool.

[Zen Diver]

Interesting pix Janna! I haven't been to Sunnyside since that time the four of us were there... long time ago....

[Chenari]

He's not the only lucky crab in the area. We found this guy at Redondo, I believe.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h65/c ... YumYum.jpg

P.S. Zen, your icon is breathing too fast :P

[Zen Diver]

That's the first time anyone's noticed! It must have been the first time I saw a 6 gil....

:occasion5:

[BASSMAN]

Nice Pics Janna! It's been a while since I've dove Sunnyside also. I think I'll be going back there for some crabbing this year!
A great place for Red Rock Crab and also Dungies! If you have the energy and air to chase them down!
I still need to fine tune the art of finding and picking Dungies from below the sand. Some one told me Look for the Eyes sticking out.
Sunnyside has to be the most relaxing divesite and always a great place to practice Skills.


Maybe we should do a Big buddy / little Buddy dive there some time.


Keith.

[nwscubamom]

Ah yes, lots of crabbies - but just a heads up - you should never pick them out from below the sand - because those are the ones that have just molted and are waiting for their shells to harden before they come out of hiding. Catching soft shelled crab is illegal. (and they don't taste good anyway, very mushy and hard to crack, besides being illegal)

EDIT: I stand corrected! Greg just emailed me and said that many hard shelled Dungies also hide out under the sand in the daytime. So there ya go!

- Janna

[Leslie]

Kelp is pretty much restricted to the big browns - Macrocystis, Nereocystis, Laminaria, Alaria, Agarum, etc. Anything smaller is just brown algae.

Aren't those parasitic copepod egg sacs coming out of the nudibranch?

[nwscubamom]

Yeah, someone else said the same thing too.

What kind of worm is on the Rose Star, Leslie? I looked through my books and couldn't find anything with those bright white spots on it.

- Janna

[Leslie]

Most likely some sort of scale worm. I can't see enough detail to go past a "kinda sorta ish-ish" id, sorry.

[Gooch]

Hey nwscubamom.......

I also spotted this guy when I was there....any idea what he is? You can zoom in on him with this pic....

thanks for the help and neat photos!

gooch

[nwscubamom]

Yup! Spotted Aglaja (Aglaja ocelligera)

The safety stop nudibranch!

- Janna

[Biodiversity_Guy]

Great quality pictures. You are getting the hang of your new camera, housing and external strobe!

[Grateful Diver]

That's the first time anyone's noticed! It must have been the first time I saw a 6 gil....

:occasion5:

I remember that dive ... and you did not breathe too fast. In fact, I think you were circular-breathing ... it's the first and only time I've ever heard someone do a complete dive debrief on a single breath ...

Janna ... I love the color and texture on that last pic (the puking anemone) ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[airsix]

Yup! Spotted Aglaja (Aglaja ocelligera)

The safety stop nudibranch!

- Janna

The VIBRATING safety stop nudibranch.