pretty epic day on Hood Canal ...

[Grateful Diver]

Most of us think it's a pretty neat dive when we see a giant pacific octo out on walkabout. On those rare days when we see two, we consider it something pretty special. So what do you call it when you see six GPO's out in the open? How about when two of them are in the act of ... well ... the act ...

That's the day we had today, when myself, blackwater, gutholmj and cardiver did a couple dives at Flagpole. It was a perfect day for it, with glass-calm water and mild current for the surface swim, 25+ foot visibility, and well ... octocity.

We descended at the WSA buoy and headed south and down the wall. At about 90 fsw I found a rather large clump of cloud sponges.



After snapping off a few pics, I signaled to Bric, who was about 15 feet away, to come over so I could get him in a picture. But he wasn't coming. So I swam over to see what he was looking at. Well ... this ...



I took quite a series of this fellow, as he was huge and very active. I found myself wishing I'd brought my wide-angle lens, as I had to back up quite a ways to get all of him ... and he was stirring up the silt pretty good as he was on the hunt. So here's a few pics of the first octo ... I'll post a few from the others as I have time ...













... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Lonestar]

Nice!

[Grateful Diver]

How's this for a wall of octopus flesh? These two were massive ... there's easily 200+ pounds of calamari in that pile ...



Ah, ain't love grand ... chilled wine, romantic music, the aromatic tang of post-coital cigarettes ... June whispering softly in Ward's ear "you were a little hard on the Beaver" ...



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Grateful Diver]

Number 4 was a bit smaller, and feisty ... I don't think he was happy to see us at all ... I called him Mr. Angry ...







... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[cardiver]

Nice shots, Bob.....I really miss my camera.

[SeattleYates]

Wow! Great stuff! You got some excellent shots, but I know they can't compare with the actual experience! I'm green with envy!

[Grateful Diver]

Number 5 was the smallest of the bunch ... he was nested in between a bunch of plumose anemones, sound asleep ...



This has got to be one of the weirdest octopus shots I've ever taken ...



Anyway, that was pretty much it for the first dive ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[gutholmj]

Another really excellent day of diving. Thanks Ron, Bob & Bric.

I really like the action in this one.


All of my images were less than inspiring but I've got to post something.

[Bric Martin]

This was one of the great days! Our swim out was with a mild flood, which helped us out. The water was glass calm, and there was no wind.

Bob and James' pictures are fantasic as always, but the pictures really don't do justice to the size of the octos. On the first dive, 4 of the 5 octos were huge. I mean really big! The two that were making whoopie were spread out over about a 5 foot area. On the first dive we spent so much time with the octos that we really overlooked the cloud sponge.

On our second dive, we dove the shallow reef. We had a nice drift out around the point and again we saw a couple of nice size octos,the dive had a decent amount of smaller critters also.

Thanks Bob, James, and Ron for a great day!

[Grateful Diver]

Second dive was on the shallow reef closer in to the point. That's where we found #6 ... also nested in among the anemones. He was a bit larger than #5 ... and although obviously awake, seemed to not mind the attention ...



... and no Hood Canal dive would be complete without at least one wolfie ... and that's all we found ...



... but this just has to be one of the goofiest wolfie shots I've ever taken ...



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[mz53480]

[Grateful Diver]

... and since we had really gone there to see the cloud sponges, I did manage to get a couple shots I liked ... in between all the octos ...





Overall a pretty awesome day of diving ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[LCF]

Wow, Bob, clearly Hood Canal was the place to be today! (Port Hadlock clearly wasn't . . . and wasn't clear, either). Some great GPO photos there.

[spatman]

wow! that's about all i can really say, just WOW!

[Jan K]

OK let me add some more WOWs. Bob you got real winners here Beautiful.

[Dusty2]

Wow! certainly was an epic day! and some epic photo's from all. I really like Brick's shot of the octo. Very dynamic. Great work you guys. Bet you made it back to shore on adrenaline alone!

To bad it's such a tough place to get to. I'm just to old for long surface swims. But it does make me eager to do Sund again this week.

[FlyinV]

Wow and great pics!

[Tom Nic]

Wow.

[ktb]

Damn . . . that's a very cool experience. Thank you for sharing what you could of it.

[whatevah]

Cool to see nice healthy Cloud Sponges. Anyone heard of any Gorgonians in Hood Canal?

[vlad]

I think, there is not enough 'wow's in this thread. I'd like to add mine too.

WOW! Great pictures, Bob!

[lavachickie]

Great pictures! Killing me here! I had potential lined up on both sides of the Sound, but circumstances made it such that things lined up to get me to the Tacoma side this weekend instead. Sounds like some wonderful dives. Thanks for sharing!

[Joshua Smith]

Holy cow- I'm late to the party, but I have to chime in- amazing shots! Those must have been epic dives!

[mjgoodman]

Bob,

What settings did you use? Thanks.

Matt

[don]

I'll add another WOW!
don