the 'Dond is getting to be fun again ...

[Grateful Diver]

After the Thankgiving storm last year, it seemed like the 'Dond had pretty much died off ... after several frustrating dives of not seeing a whole lot, I put the camera away and figured I'd wait till the seaweed started growing again to see if it brought the critters back. Well, it looks like life is beginning to return ... and when I realized I hadn't taken any pics there since mid-January, I figured it was time. I did one dive last evening with Lologrande, and two more today with Spatman.

For all three dives we entered at the beach south of the boat ramp. Two of the three dives we got out on the north beach, and the third dive we went to the bottle field and then came back to the south beach. Nudibranchs are beginning to make a big comeback ... particularly janolus fusca ... one of my favorites. I saw at least a half-dozen on every dive. Spatman found a couple of tiny stubby squids for me to play with. And the highlight of the day was getting buzzed by a sea lion as we were cruising from the bottle field to the carousel boat.

Anyway, here's a few shots ... I was in macro mode today ... been a while since I had that lens on the camera, and so it was good to get the practice ...













It's really great to see things starting to come to life there again ... and vis didn't suck either ... probably 25 or better once you got below the halocline ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Alexitt]

Nice.......
I love macro!!!
Have yet to dive Redondo but since my little brother is working on his OW this week and is living in Gig Harbor now instead of Omaha perhaps I'll have a good excuse to try some of the Southern sites...

[Dusty2]

Wow, That second janolus is cool! and that stubby shot is nice. Looks like you didn't loose your touch.

Now all we need is for them to get the steps fixed.

[LCF]

Oh, this is so good to hear! The OW checkout dives we did at Redondo last month were just plain depressing, so it's wonderful that life is recrudescing there.

[fmerkel]

Nice photos Bob. Love good macro shots.
Photo #3 looks to be a relatively unknown sp. not just a color variation.
Joyce and another guy in our club found and took pix of a couple at the Junkyard when we were taking Scotty Lundy's photo class. They were ID'ed by our resident nudi enthusiast Karin Fletcher and confirmed by an expert. Here's her email about it:

[Just wanted to let everyone know that Joyce and Rob did spot a rare nudibranch in Puget Sound, the frosty-tipped nudibranch (Janolus sp 2). It has not been given an official scientific name yet, but Sandra Millen, recently retired professor at UBC, is working on a paper describing the species. Rob and Joyce’s sighting will further clarify the range of this species – way to go!]

You can see Joyce's photo of it here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jbmerkel/P ... yard040211#

This may extend the range even more. I can provide contact info if you want to send the photo and details on to Sandra.

Fritz

[Grateful Diver]

That would be great, Fritz. Actually, I've taken pics of those at Redondo in the past ... got some nice ones a couple years ago. I figured they were immature golden dironas ... they've got that "look" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[fmerkel]

We thought the same kind of thing.
PM on the way.

[spatman]

i also had written off Redondo as a boring wasteland since that storm, but it is finally starting to get back to where it once had been.

thanks for the dives yesterday, bob, and great shots as usual.

[gutholmj]

Nice Pics Bob. It's good to hear that things are coming back.

I went back through some of my photos and perhaps this is also a Frosted Tipped Nudibranch? It was at Sund Rock on Thanksgiving.

[fmerkel]

Looks like it. The fat cerata, white tips, and visible line running up the cerata are the clues I know about.
There were a few on our Junkyard photo class. That's where we saw them. Maybe you got some photos from then also?

Fritz

[gutholmj]

Looks like it. The fat cerata, white tips, and visible line running up the cerata are the clues I know about.
There were a few on our Junkyard photo class. That's where we saw them. Maybe you got some photos from then also?

Fritz

If I did, I've unfortunately gotten rid of the evidence.

[Jenbowes]

As always, stellar shots, Bob!

[wenatchee]

Thanks for the great pictures! They are simply awesome.