Jan K wrote: And this is
the fourth dead seal I run across in last three years here. All within one
hundred feet radius.
]
I've found several dead seals and sea lions, perhaps a dozen, while walking beaches this year. Also scattered bones. I assume it is the result of a high population. There was a bounty on seals until 1960. In 1972, they became protected. The population then was estimated as no more than 3000. The NOAA website states that over 30,000 were counted in the last full census. In this picture, taken earlier in the month, Chelsea checks out one carcass.
-Curt
Wow that doesn't look good at all. I saw your post on Facebook and it seems some very seasoned divers and critter watchers have never seen this either, which makes it a little more alarming. Also to add is that you saw this on more than one....
**Pinch it, don't stick your finger through. You're just pinching a bigger hole.
CAPTNJACK - 2012**
Isn't it also pretty unusual to see even one (let alone two) of these cukes in the open? At the Feiro Center and in the intertidal areas around Port Angeles we don't even see their feeding tentacles from about October through March!
More Pics Than You Have Time To Look AT "Anyone who thinks this place is over moderated is bat-crazy anarchist." -Ben, Airsix "Warning: No dive masters are going to be there, Just a bunch of old fat guys taking pictures of fish." -Bassman
When mares are close to parturition, they look miserable -- they don't move around much, and may lose their appetites. It has always appeared to me that these extremely gravid fish look equally uncomfortable.
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
Those long white threads coming from the anemone are called acontia. They're packed with nematocysts and are ciliated-- they are normally used in the gut to subdue ingested prey but can be extruded through the body wall for defense. I had one under a microscope the other day and it was fascinating to watch it crawl around like some kind of weird worm, weaving around and coiling up like a watchspring. And of course watching the nematocysts fire.
When I returned to Deception Pass to check on Red sea cucumbers and their mystery blisters,
I did not find much change. Since I had more time to look around, I found more of them. But interestingly, all of the blistered cuks were in one area only. On both side outside it, the few cucumbers I found were all normal, without blisters. None of them are feeding, maybe wrong time of year, day...