Whidbey Island Critters

[oldsalt]

Jan: Do you know the species of abalone in Maya's photo? If they were Pintos, where woiuld they have been harvested? Korea? I believe the commercial pinto fishery has been closed for several years. $5.99 seems like a bargain for abalone.
-Curt

[Jan K]

Curt, unfortunately I don't know what kind it is, I just remember somebody telling me that the California abs are going for one hundred dollars per pound We used to eat them a lot in the old days, now I take pictures if I can even find one ...
Back to local waters. I did not see ANY snailfish in all the years I have been diving here
and now I found three species in one week

[LCF]

Wow, Jan, is there ANYTHING in the marine world you haven't seen? I've seen one snailfish, ever, and I'm not sure which one it was (not a tidepool, for sure).

[Greg Jensen]

Jan: Do you know the species of abalone in Maya's photo? If they were Pintos, where woiuld they have been harvested? Korea? I believe the commercial pinto fishery has been closed for several years. $5.99 seems like a bargain for abalone.
-Curt

Those are cultured abalone, not wild-caught. Not sure which species it is, but they're not pintos.

[Jan K]

Night dive at Keystone brings out the Decorated ones

[dphershman]

super warbonnet photos! This seems to be a good time of year for them, we saw lots at Sunrise Beach last weekend :-)

did you have to have a special permit to do a night dive at Keystone?

[Jan K]

super warbonnet photos! This seems to be a good time of year for them, we saw lots at Sunrise Beach last weekend :-)
did you have to have a special permit to do a night dive at Keystone?

Thanks Dan. Yes, they close the park at sunset, but local dive shop had "Night diving" certification class there and paid the extra fee to have it open until 9 PM so I took advantage of it. Too bad it is not open at all time ...

[Nwbrewer]

Jan, that first picture is amazing!

[Blaiz]

Jan, that first warbonnet IS amazing!

Great closeups, have you gone and invested in a DSLR?

[Jan K]

, have you gone and invested in a DSLR?

Thanks, but I still point and shoot and hope for the best. At least at night, some of the fish don't run away so fast when I point

I went for another night dive with my daughter, this time Langley did not produce much oppotunities
as far as critters go, but we had fun with the bioluminescence, first time for Maya .... Of course, the
presentation features fake plankton light show display,I still don't know how to capture it with my
camera for real

[Chenari]

Can your camera record video? That's the only way I can think of to get any quality recording of the luminescence.

[Jan K]

Can your camera record video? That's the only way I can think of to get any quality recording of the luminescence.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I am not a video guy, I let somebody else more talented in that stuff try it.

Next day my daughter and I went to Driftwood Park, since she never dove there. As always there were
fishermen lining the shore. I talked to one of them when he asked me what do we see down there.
When I mentioned octopus among other creatures, he told us that last week group of students from
a university (did not name it) dove here all day and caught ten octopuses. He said he even took picture of
the big one. That is nothing I like to hear. I know, I know, it is legal and Driftwood is not a park. And I don't
own the animals who live there. But ten ? OK, I have no proof that the story is true, just wondering if our
photos of critter and showing the locations doesn't help others to harvest easier whatever they are after
and thus making our dive sites poorer. Just a thought.
We dove down, found one small Red octo which provided nice subject to photograph and video. I did not
find the resident large GPO, but it could be just coincidence, hopefully it was out shopping. I will check
on it next time.... Enough rambling

[LCF]

I'm not sure that I don't like the little guys even more than the big ones. They're so entertaining, as they react to visitors. And I love finding them in the funny hiding places they use.

[Dusty2]

That warbonnet shot is awesome! The best I've seen. The wonderful thing about night dives is that there is no ambient light to interfere with your photos so the colors and clarity is so much better. Congrats on those two. they are contest winners for sure.

and I agree with LCF on the little reds. They are much more entertaining than the GPO's You can interact with them and they can be characters at times with their curiosity, shape and color changes.

[oldsalt]

It looks like Maya follows the family tradition - diving and photographing. Regarding bioluminescence: While delivering a yacht to Southern California at this time of year I heard the sound of porpoise spouting which caused me to step out on deck. On a magical, clear, moonless night, a pod of Dall's porpoise rode our bow wake. The phosphoresence illuminated their bodies in an eeire green light revealing their distinct pattern. They left zig-zag wakes of glowing bubbles like drunken torpedos. Amazingly, they disappeared into the darkness when they lept from the water, only to re-appear when they entered the water. I stood alone with the sea, the stars, and these marvelous creatures. Such moments can never be photographed, perhaps more treasured because of their ephemeral nature. These little dinoflagellates have brought me great pleasure on many night watches over the years. Thanks for reminding me.
-Curt

[Jan K]

Very well said, Curt. Thank you for making me realize, that some things are better to remain in our memory only, the photographic image of some phenomena could never capture the magic moments, regardless how technically good the camera is. Still or video, the total experience is unattainable through mechanical devices. It is very personal and thus not possible to replicate ... I just tried to put on screen what we saw in that night darkness forty five feet under the surface. Failed
But I am glad that it brought back your memory of the same phenomena in other time and other place.
I wish that everybody could collect such memories for the "old age"

[Jan K]

Possession Point Fingers shore access still closed because construction still in progress, so I visit
nearby county park and its field of sea pens ...

[Dusty2]

Pretty, The encrusting bryozoans are slowly overwhelming their host kelp and soon we will begin to once again to see the structure below and the wonderful critters that dwell there.

[Tom Nic]

Beautiful!

Love it when you run into those amazing serendipitous moments when sea life cooperates with composition.... of course you have to have the camera skill to take advantage of the opportunities, and you obviously do!

[Jan K]

Critters of the night. Langley Tire Reef.

[Dusty2]

nice closeups Jan, Ya gotta love those Canon g series cameras.

[LCF]

Oh, great photos, Jan! Sculpins fascinate and frustrate me, because so many of them are small. They're a lot of the reason I've been trying to learn to use a camera. I might not know what I'm looking at when I'm looking at it, but maybe I can know when I get home!

[Jan K]

Thanks, glad you enjoy them.
More from that night dive. It seems when the greenlings don't see my ugly face, they don't get
scared and don't mind to pose for pictures ...



And the sculpins like sailing in the night too :

[Jan K]

After not so productive dive at Deception Pass, while I was hanging around the shallows
during my safety stop, Penpoint gunnel appears from the silty waters, slithering across the
rock gravel bottom towards the kelp patch letting me snap few pictures before disappearing
among the blades, matching its colors perfectly with the algae.

[Dusty2]

Beautiful shots on the white spotted greenling. That's the wonderful thing about night dives. You can get close to the really skidish fish because they are sleeping not to mention the night shift comes out and you can get nice shots of critters like that sailfin.