My AOW "Critter ID" dive

Fish & Invertebrate sightings and descriptions, hosted by resident NWDC ID expert Janna Nichols (nwscubamom).
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LCF
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My AOW "Critter ID" dive

Post by LCF »

Peter has been teaching like a maniac, and we spent the whole weekend doing AOW dives with a group of students. In the process, I ended up touring Cove 2 with one of the students, who wanted to do a "Marine Life ID" dive as part of her AOW. To do this, PADI gives you a number of plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates you have to find. We looked at the list, and made a chart on her slate of species we expected we could see on the dive.

We dropped at the first yellow boundary line buoy. Before we got to the second, we had found half of the things on her list.

Just for fun, after we got home, I made a list from memory of everything I could remember having seen on the dive:

Anemones:
Metridium senile (The small anemone on the boundary line)
Metridium farcimen (the big plumose anemones on the pilings)


Nudibranchs:
Janolus fuscus
Hermissenda crassicornis
Peltodoris nobilis
Doris montereyensis
Geitodoris heathi
Berthella californica (not really a nudibranch)


Crabs:
Cancer productus (red rock crab)
Cancer magister (Dungeness crab)
Pugettia producta (Northern kelp crab)
Telmessus cheiragonus (Helmet crab)
Oregonia gracilis (Graceful decorator crab)
Pagurus armatus (black-eyed hermit crab)


Hydroid: Obelia app.


Mussel: Mytilus trossulus (on the floats and the downlink)


Chiton: Toncella lineata (lined Chiton)


Sea Cucumbers:
Parastichopus californicus (The big red ones)
Cucumaria miniata (the things that look like orange flowers in the rocks)


Sea urchin: Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis (green sea urchin)


Sea stars:

Brittle star (I'm not sure what species we have)
Solaster stimpsoni (Stimpson’s sea star)
Evasterias troschelli (mottled star)
Pisaster ochraceus (Ochre star)


Fish:
Aulorhynchus flavidus (tubesnout)
Ophiodon elongates (ling cod)
Oxylebius pictus (painted greenling)
Sebastes auriculatus (brown rockfish)
Parophrys vetulus (English sole - not totally certain of this one)
Cymatogaster aggregate (shiner perch)


Shrimp: Pandalus danae (coon-striped shrimp)
Other Eualus species (not sure if they're Kincaid’s or Townsend’s)


Jellies:
Phacellophora camtschatica (egg yolk jelly)
Aequorea app. (the small water jellies)


Plus a couple of species of seaweed (even with my books, I can't ID them)!

And we of course see clam siphons all the time, but since the books only show the shells, I have no idea to whom the siphons belong.

Anyway, not a bad haul for a cruise around the Cove, and a nice reminder of how much wildlife we see that we have stopped looking at!
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
fnerg
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Re: My AOW "Critter ID" dive

Post by fnerg »

The only critter I occasionally stop looking at, or for, is the coonstripe shrimp, because they're so ubiquitous. I have to remind myself to look for them sometimes.

About soles:

I've mostly seen english soles at Cove 2. The way I differentiate between english and rock soles, is that the english soles are narrower, and their dorsal/anal fins are more angular. Also, I think rock sole's eyes are buggier. Lastly, the rock sole's scales are bigger amd rougher, but it's hard to judge when you aren't looking at two of them side by side.
Tidepool Geek
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Re: My AOW "Critter ID" dive

Post by Tidepool Geek »

Greetings,

You might want to take a look at Sells & Shellfish of the Pacific Northwest by Rick Harbo:
http://www.harbourpublishing.com/title/ ... cNorthwest

It has a small section dedicated to photos of clam siphons.

I.D.ally yours,

Alex
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LCF
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Re: My AOW "Critter ID" dive

Post by LCF »

Thanks, Alex! It WOULD be nice to know to which animals those things belong!
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
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