Northwest Dive Club

While Keystone provided me with nice visibility in the last four days of diving there, today I visited Langley on rising tide near the high mark, it was bad. Under the thermocline at 32 feet it improved somewhat, maybe to twelve feet, but chunks of sea lettuce and silt floating all over the place.. ...

Whidbey Dive Center has Diver Evening Picnic at Rosario Beach on Fidalgo Island (near the Deception Pass) on Saturday 15th at 3 PM. Bring your own entree to barbecue and a side for pot luck. They supply the charcoal, barbecue pit, sodas and water. ( I quote a newsletter).

The romance is still going on at Keystone Jetty, breeding colors displayed proudly by some of the Painted Greenling pairs.

Looks like the Alaskan Skeleton shrimp (Caprella alaskana) or one of similar species. Not really a shrimp -it is amphipod.

Sorry, I didn't want to be pushy, just curious what to look forward, if I do manage to make it up north.. Thanks.

Inside the jetty rocks, Noble dorids are busy creating new generation of yellow slugs

Can you post some of the pictures from the trip?

From the murky waters of Langley Tire Reef -

Very nice pictures Tom, I think that you got them figured out right. The first one however, is very difficult one, I am struggling with the same, and it is apparent, we are not the only ones. Just check out the Slug Forum and type in white dorids .. #-o http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=202...

Just outside of Deception PAss, Whidbey Island, Deception Island provides a protected dive site when the currents in the pass are ripping. Not much fish life, visibility wasn't that good, but lots and lots of scallops..

It takes the entire family when Saddleback gunnels go clamming in the shallow waters off Keystone Jetty..

LCF - Thank you for your kind words, I hope you had a great dive. Sorry I missed you yesterday, I dove Langley in the morning - visibility was bad, wish I went to Keystone instead. Well, I went to Keystone this afternoon, I had a interesting dive, my drysuit leaked to point of flooding, so I was ver...

The octopus with crab dinner - what a shot !

Well, from what I saw, it was not an orgy, the other cucumbers in the vicinity did not show much interest in the gyration of the individual I was taking pictures of ...

Thin red lines, humpy looking, hope that I ID it correctly..



It is not Humpy, it is Sitka shrimp - Heptacarpus sitchensis

Langley Reef - I found that eggs are still being laid and guarded by the Painted Greenling..

Calvin, great photography. Your crab photo is actually showing the large male protecting the smaller female while she is molting. If you look closer, you willl see that the new shell is emerging. I was lucky to witness same once, unfortunately I run out of air before the whole process was finished. ...

I met this shell collector at Keystone.

The currents get little crazy sometimes even at the Pilings



and lets add a little color

Great report, sure sounds like MUST DO place. Looking forward to see your pictures. Starting to save money for that trip

Friends from California wanted to see what Whidbey has to offer - so Keystone was our playground, even if the tides (Low) or currents (Strong) were not the most accommodating. We all had good time nevertheless. They are planning to return next year :supz: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1285/12468377...

Back to the home waters of Whidbey Island. Lots of young rockfish, from Black, Yellowtail and Copper, with few Puget Sounders mixed in, facing the Keystone currents, hover and feed in it - just simple pleasure to swim with them in the last days of summer ... :supz: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/115...

This one I did not find at Keystone, but on my snorkeling venture in British Columbia - I wish I had my dive gear and my camera gear, but since it is a free swimming slug, maybe it will show up at Keystone some day. For your enjoyment: the Sea Angel :D http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1078/1215198777_...

What a wonderful collection of photographs - in spite of the limitations you mention, you brought back a load of treasure - thanks for sharing, as it is raining and gray outside - these colors are so uplifting!

They are reported as being common elsewhere, but I found only single individual at Keystone Jetty. Maybe not rough water enough for them.