Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

Thank you for your words of support...
After diving almost every day, I miss the underwater world more than I thought I would.
I am staring at the outside of the tent now ....

[dwashbur]

Jan,
Take your time and get healthy. Thinking of you, my friend!

[Jan K]

Since I am now limited to look at the Puget Sound waters only from above, I do
my daily walk on nearby beach. Last week I found a bottle with paper inside, so
of course I picked it up. I was unable to unscrew the top so I had to cut the
plastic soda bottle to get to the note.
I mailed a letter to the girl who tossed it into Puget Sound, hoping to find out more.
You can imagine my surprise when I got the answer. She did not even remember
that she did it, until I send her these photos. For fifteen years this bottle waited to
be discovered. Since there was not much growth on it, I suspect that it was resting
most of the time somewhere on the beach till the very high tides we had recently
freed it again and floated it to Whidbey. But who knows...

[LCF]

What a fun reward for looking carefully enough to see that there was a paper inside the bottle!

[Octoloco]

That's really fun! Inspires us to pick up more litter!

[Jan K]

Crabs and anemones - from time when I was still diving ...

[LCF]

I have been wondering about commensalism with regards to a ling cod who has lived in Cove 2 for a long time. He is often, if not always found in proximity to a denned GPO, and I have wondered if he is living off the scraps from the GPO's hunting. He has gotten truly amazingly large -- the biggest ling cod I have ever seen anywhere but Edmonds -- so something is making his life easy.

[Grateful Diver]

... this has been, for years, my all-time favorite thread on the internet. Just want to say thanks, Jan ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[LCF]

Hear, hear, Bob!

[Jan K]

While waiting for the medical fix, I am going through some of the older files to keep my sanity
Another Scalyhead sculpin and hermit encounter ...

[LCF]

Gives a whole new meaning to "eating someone out of house and home" . . .

[Tom Nic]

I observed this for the first time a few months ago at Edmonds. Fun to watch!

[Jan K]

The Lingcod egg laying season started on December 14, 2012 here on Whidbey.
Still, I am obligated to stand on the beach and depend on others to tell me all about it :(

[Jan K]

There are no empty shells to cover my behind with in this muddy lagoon !!!

[LCF]

So, that's what they look like nekkid!

[renoun]

There are no empty shells to cover my behind with in this muddy lagoon !!!

Perhaps this is just the subset of hermit crabs that aren't any good at poker. Jan, you should do a crabs playing stip poker illustration for your favorite barber shop.

[Jan K]

Only some seaweed, but still part of the big picture

[LCF]

I learn so much from this thread!

[fnerg]

So I saw something that looked like this, but green, in Hawaii. I wasn't sure of it was algae or coral because it looked like it had a calcium skeleton or something. Does the coral leaf seaweed use calcium?

[Jan K]

There is such thing as GREEN LEAF CORAL (Montipora capricornus), but that is in the tropics.
RANGE: Australia, Indo-Pacific region, Red Sea and Indian Ocean; found on Great Barrier Reef.
What we have here is coral only by name, I believe.

[Jan K]

[oldsalt]

These gorgeous little animals are usually attached to a rock buried under the sediment. I found this out when collecting them for a marine biology lab.
-Curt

[LCF]

Anemone wars? Who knew . . .

[Jan K]

Adding some older stuff involving color variations discussed elsewhere on NWDC site:

Meanwhile, while everybody has a fabulous diving and taking great photos - I am on :

My surgeon is called indeed Dr.Z at the hospital. He is a great guy

[Norris]

I sincerely wish you a speedy recover Jan!!!