Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

Driftwood Pond #1, March 28, 2024 dive.
The rest of the pixels, this time added some critters I did not find before here.

[Tidepool Geek]

Hi Jan,
Your mystery organism in the first panael reminded me of the newly described "Skeleton Panda Sea Squirt" (Clavelina ossipandae) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_panda_sea_squirt - from Japan. That led me to a couple of entries in Greg Jensen's Beneath Pacific Tides (both on page 274):
- Pycnoclavella stanleyi
- Clavelina huntsmani
Just some possibilities for your consideration.
Considerably yours,
Alex
P.S. If nothing else, my identifying things here generally leads to Greg correcting me and giving a better I.D.

[Jan K]

Hi Jan,
Your mystery organism in the first panael reminded me of the newly described "Skeleton Panda Sea Squirt" (Clavelina ossipandae) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_panda_sea_squirt - from Japan. That led me to a couple of entries in Greg Jensen's Beneath Pacific Tides (both on page 274):
- Pycnoclavella stanleyi
- Clavelina huntsmani
Just some possibilities for your consideration.
Considerably yours,
Alex
P.S. If nothing else, my identifying things here generally leads to Greg correcting me and giving a better I.D.

Thank you Alex for your input.
I am familiar with P. stanleyi. However the ones on that floating driftwood are much smaller. My camera cannot get better picture unfortunately. The C. ossipandae has some resemblance, but doesn't have white top and "eyes and nose" black dot s. Also missing the horizontal blood vessels.
Maybe Greg will have some ideas, but there is probably not enough detail in my photo.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Pond #2, March 30, 2024
So close to its neighbor, Pond #1, and yet it is so different from it.
No Moon jellyfish at all. Not even one. And has what I call the Dead Zone in its deep parts.

[Jan K]

Driftwood Pond #2, March 30, 2024
The rest of pixels, many of them still dealing with the presence of decay...

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor, April 1, 2024.
April Fools Day, some of the Giant Plumose anemones were really fooling around . Spawning in a big way.

[Jan K]

And the rest of the pics from that Langley dive:

[Jan K]

Deception Pass, April 2, 2024
The weather was nice, the current almost nonexistent, too bad that the scenery underwater is not what it used to be...

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, April 3, 2024

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, April 3, 2024
And the rest of the pixels...

[Jan K]

Skyline, April 5, 2024 dive.
Buffalo sculpins all over the wall.

[Jan K]

More from the Skyline, April 5, 2024 dive.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, April 10, 2024 dive.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, April 10, 2024 dive.
And yes, the rest of the pixels...

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor, April 14, 2024 dive.
I was surprised to see group of ladies in thin wetsuits swimming along the shore for the whole one hour I was diving. In a drysuit.
Impressive.

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor, April 14, 2024 dive.
One piece of lost crab trap and look what I found on it.

[Jan K]

Langley Harbor, April 14, 2024 dive.
Then Sunflower stars are scarce again here.

[Jan K]

Keystone Jetty, April 20, 2024 dive.
Nice to see Bull kelp returning in large numbers...