Northwest Dive Club

This series of montages started when I came across a small piece of what I first thought
was some kind of egg configuration. Only when I looked at it on large computer screen,
I realized that it is a piece of red algae, it just wasn't red...( first page, upper photo).

So next dive I seek out this common seaweed and gather more pictures.
Not exciting, but I didn't make up page of it yet until now I am still trying to find out
what the little tree-like structures growing out of the papillae are called..

The texture of the seaweed and the stubby tubercles on the sea slug -
just a whimsical moment at computer ...

LoL great association Jan

Amusingly, I still associate the word carrageenan with The Black Stallion. When Alec is shipwrecked, he finds seaweed (which he knows contains carrageenan from a science class in school) growing near the island, and feeds himself and the horse with it until they are rescued. Gosh, I haven't read that book in 20 years, but I sure checked it out of the elementary school library a lot!

Request that next picture be seahorse!! go horsie!

Blaiz, it was good to see you at our local diving "hole" yesterday, you are sure logging in dives !! .
Looks like my daughter is catching the photo bug too

I was very pleased to meet your daughter Maya, although I confess I had thought her to be much younger than she apparently is! Lovely young lady, and she no doubt received the full complement of photography genes from you!

Just found that there is something as thorny and even older then I am !

So the Red Sea Urchins have found the Fountain of Youth?? Pretty interesting stuff - I had no idea. Love learning new things here, thanks Jan!

- Janna

I had no idea, but these guys say so:
Ebert, TA and JR Southon 2003. Red sea urchins can live over 100 years: confirmation with A-bomb [14.sup]carbon - Strongylocentrotus franciscanus. Fishery Bulletin, 101(4): 915-922

Interesting information on urchin diets. I knew they eat kelp holdfasts, so I assumed they were primarily herbivorous. Learn something knew every day (if you follow Jan's thread, that is!)

First time sighted Nipple sponge on Whidbey - they are more common in the San Juans ..

these bivalves are very common at Deception Pass:

I love those sponges -- I find them fascinating. I've seen them at Waterman's Wall and Davidson Rock; like most sponges, it seems that they show up a little deeper at those sites. But Deception Pass isn't deep, is it?

LCF wrote:I love those sponges -- I find them fascinating. I've seen them at Waterman's Wall and Davidson Rock; like most sponges, it seems that they show up a little deeper at those sites. But Deception Pass isn't deep, is it?

Interesting, thanks for your observation. I found this sponge in only 25 feet of water on my way out where the kelp patch is.
As for the depth of Deception Pass, I am not the one to tell, I once went down to 85 feet, it goes down some more, but I did not find there anything more interesting then in the shallower portion which gives me more bottom time and more light too. I think that Whatevah swam across the pass from Whidbey to Pass Island, so he knows the deep portion better.. Maybe he will share his experience with us

Rock Entodesma eh? Interesting. I never knew what they were really called - have seen them referred to as "Northwest Ugly Clams" a couple of different places though. Great photos Jan - so often they're jammed way back between rocks with only the siphons showing. In Deception Pass itself (right between Whidbey Island and Pass Island) it is only 135' to 140' at high tide. To the west of the bridge it drops into a hole around 180' deep and then shallows up significantly all the way out to Deception Island. To the east of Pass Island is a similar story - drops to about 200' and then shallows as you pass Strawberry Island and head toward Hoypus Point. One thing that is cool about the very bottom of the pass is that it is still covered in life. There is not a square inch of rock that isn't covered in colorful inverts fighting for real estate. At most other sites the inverts seem to thin out some at those depths. But Jan is right - there is nothing at the bottom that you won't also see at 85' - except maybe more bicycle frames, cut padlocks, and stainless clips from the bait boxes of long ago rusted-away crab pots.

Thanks Whatevah for the report from the DEEP. Now I don't have to feel bad that I did not pursue the bottom of the pass since I am critter watcher, not antique bicycle collector
More from my most recent dives there :

wow, that irish lord sure has his fins splayed for inspection and approval doesn't he??

WONDERFUL pics yet again sir!

We have seen those brittle stars in Southern California, in such enormous masses that it appears the entire surface is covered in multicolored shag carpeting. We saw some smaller aggregations in Monterey, as well, on kelp holdfasts. I've never seen them in numbers that way around here, though.

LCF wrote:We have seen those brittle stars in Southern California, in such enormous masses that it appears the entire surface is covered in multicolored shag carpeting. We saw some smaller aggregations in Monterey, as well, on kelp holdfasts. I've never seen them in numbers that way around here, though.

Haha! Shag carpet is a perfect analogy. I've seen that too - in the northern Channel Islands - I think those are a different species of brittle star. Actually kind of creepy - had visions of being grabbed by that writhing mass of stars.

Few more from the Pass :
I was waiting to see of the crab will crack the passerby, but the crab was not in hurry to
show me and the current was nudging me on

This time I found couple of them hiding in barnacle shells, not easy to photograph.
Got only one of them ..

More Deception color :


and from the shallows :

Love the proliferating anemones. The light colored ones are so pretty

Stout shrimp and one with a parasite. Thanks Greg for helping out with this one ...

Painted Greenling trying to swallow sculpin. I could not see the outcome as the greenling
disappeared in the rocks of the Keystone Jetty after I found the struggling duo.

Wow, Another awesome catch Jan. I didn't think they could open their mouths that far. Hard to feel sorry for the sculpin though cause I've watched them energetically capturing and swallowing other critters. Sometimes I feel guilty cause the fishes take advantage of my lights to seek out a meal. In the end it's just a matter of survival and just about everything down there eats other critters.

Now we know at least one thing painted greenlings eat...if it doesn't escape...

That... is... AWESOME!!! And so many angles too! You are so darn lucky to see all this stuff and get such great shots. Last time I saw a sculpin being eaten I only got one shot.

Wow! Over the years, I've gotten a few photos with tail fins sticking out or antennae but wow! Those are amazing photos!

Jan, those are photo contest material, for sure. Not only did you catch something unusual, but the expression on the sculpin's face, with his little pectoral fins spread wide, really captures the drama of it.