Northwest Dive Club

Yes, Ciona savignyi still live in the waters of Lagoon Point, but they don't seem to be
gaining on locals since I first found them. Here, they don't look all that menacing
in the company of all the other invertebrates crowding the bottom of floating docks.
While the worms, tunicates and sponges add color the scene close to the surface,
down on the muddy bottom the crabs are busy dining on the body of a dead sculpin..
These are pictures I took some years back. But since most of them were not "published"
before, I decided to redo the pages ..

Well, in spite of the cold, spring must be near. At Keystone new Bull Kelp is showing
up in great numbers.. In no time it will make it difficult to swim through the shallows
into deeper water at low tide..

Few critters from the south end of Whidbey Island.

Oh, thank you for identifying the clam siphons, Jan! I love those, with their brilliant colors, but I didn't realize they belonged to the clams that make the holes in the sandstone walls. I learn something every day!

One would not count boat hulls as a prime place to look for critters, nevertheless
I found some on my exploratory dive/swim along the Lagoon Point canal. With the
price of fuel, I think I would invest in a cleaning service if I owned one of these ...

Believe or not, I found these on the hull of one sailboat ...


Another reason to keep an underwater eye on running gear submerged in salt water.
Some before and after pics ...

After a long break I revisited Keystone Jetty, the visibility is still not good, plenty of silt.
I was lucky t come across a pair of Painted Greenlings. Since they were still both sexes
present at the egg mass site, I guess they were in process of adding to the clutch since
normally, only the male guards the nest... Current was picking up and I had to move on,
so I did not see what happened later ...



It looks like the female (lighter colored) still carries more eggs .

Yeah she does still have a bit of a tummy.

First dive at Deception Pass in 2011.
The visibility was not that good, ten, twelve feet, but it is always enjoyable dive here.
Not too productive in the photo department...

The strong southerly winds are making the Keystone Jetty water entry interesting ..

Only few of the Plumose anemones were spawning


The lonely abalone is still cruising the rocks of the jetty. I recognize it by the two
False Jingles attached to its shell ...

Nice find on the abalone! I don't know of any other sightings in Puget Sound?

Looking for love in all the wrong places....poor abalone! Have you given him a name yet? How about Jingle-oney because of the attached critters?

- Janna

dphershman wrote:Nice find on the abalone! I don't know of any other sightings in Puget Sound?

They are a rare sight indeed. Only one time I spotted two of them at Keystone on the same dive, so hopefully,
"Jingle-oney" will meet the other and fall in love :luv: It sure would be nice to have more of them around here ..

The voracious Sunflower star even tried to taste one of the Plumose anemones at
Langley Tire Reef and got a taste of nematocysts. It did not like it and crawled
away, letting the anemone continue to grow old. Very old


Still life with crab

Jan: The way I heard the story is that the long-lived anemone sat for nearly a century as a low maintenance experiment. Someone, not realizing this was a longevity experiment, dumped it (him/her?) out to use the container. I live in constant fear that someone will do the same with me. I'm not useless; I'm a longevity experiment!
-Curt

oldsalt wrote:Jan: The way I heard the story is that the long-lived anemone sat for nearly a century as a low maintenance experiment. Someone, not realizing this was a longevity experiment, dumped it (him/her?) out to use the container. I live in constant fear that someone will do the same with me. I'm not useless; I'm a longevity experiment!
-Curt

I share your concern. I feel like being object of the same experiment

The way I'd always heard it was that a botanist was put in charge of caring for it.
'Nuff said.

Rockfish at Keystone are having babies!

Even a hermit needs love :luv:

Wading into the world of difficult to ID tunicates. I consulted a tunicate expert
and was told:
"I think your IDs may be correct on the Ritterellas (the others are fine)
but to be sure I would have to examine some zooids."

Question Jan, What are the little white cobra looking things that are in the first and last picture?

Dusty2 wrote:Question Jan, What are the little white cobra looking things that are in the first and last picture?

They are the Yellow Social ascidians, I never seen one yellow, so I don't know why they are called that. Quite common
here at Keystone Jetty.

Thanks Jan, I only see them in white too. I did find a photo online of yellow ones from Cal.

Another critter which doesn't run away when you hit the shutter on your point & shoot camera

Pretty, Like delicate little flowers.

Jan, for all the years you have been posting these pages, I have never lost one bit of delight in looking at them. Nobody else anywhere does the kind of blending of photography and artwork that you do, and with the educational bits as well, this thread is an absolutely, priceless treasure. Don't ever stop!