Northwest Dive Club

Thank you very much for your kind words, I am glad that Whidbey Critters still matter to
some of local divers, for it is harder and harder to come up with pages with photos that
don't bring up a sigh "or no, not another Lingcod picture !" kind of response...
I am happy to add yet another new to me critter - Speckled Compound Ascidian. At first
I thought it is a sponge (they are really hard to ID), but I got help from Gretchen Lambert
who helped me to correctly identify this. And she should know. She described it for the
first time few years ago and named it after her grandson ! How cool is that.


I hope to meet you, critter enthusiasts, at the Tacoma Expo, I will be again helping out at the
Whidbey Island Dive Center booth...

Hmm . . . interesting looking creature. I saw a bunch of ascidians today that were unfamiliar to me, and looked something similar, but of course, the only camera I had was the one in my mind.

Visit to Deception Pass

Wow another cool find. Strange looking thing when it's all humped up like that. You sure do have a knack for finding the unusual.

Thanks Dusty. The Pass is such a rich environment for invertebrates ...
My favorites:

Great Pictures !!!! I like it.

Wow Awesome shots Jan! Especially that last one. Thanks for posting these beauties. I never see them in this color. Most I see are green or blue/green.

Wish I was fit enough to dive that awesome site.

more creatures from the Pass, this one with a name that spells it all out
This sand worm isn't probably too mobile ..

Wow -- love the shot of the anemones on the leafy hornmouth. What a find! I love the brooding anemones for their spectacular color. I remember doing Whale Rocks last year and just reveling in the brightness, where they were just covering the rocks.

Four dives in a row at Deception Pass provided nice diversion from the
weather we are having this year. Lately I feel like the cucumber....

Jan: Right now I am looking at the sun setting over Whidbey Island. You don't have it so bad. Nor do I.
- Curt

oldsalt wrote:Jan: Right now I am looking at the sun setting over Whidbey Island. You don't have it so bad. Nor do I.
- Curt

Curt, you are right. It could be worse ...
At least we are still diving

Wow -- I don't think I've ever seen one of the black leather chitons before, or at least I haven't recognized it. I'll have to keep an eye out! Thank you, as usual, Jan, for the education.

From the sanitation department ....

And wrapping up the Deception Pass dives with munching Monterey dorids :

After seeing your latest post I'll never look at a Monterey dorid the same way again - they will forever be known as the Spongebob munchers!

Keystone Pilings revisited, rather sparse as far as fish are concerned.
And low tide entry is becoming harder due to the new Bull Kelp crop ...

I would say that the pilings here are not too poisonous to the marine life

The Sharpnose crabs like the company of anemones, Keystone oranges and whites,
Deception Pass the pink. And to protect themselves from the stinging, maybe the sponge coat comes handy

Hordes of these little slugs foraging on hydroids

I hope this young one will take up residence at Keystone ...

Probably not much hope of him sticking around. I see allot of them from the bright orange new comers to the purple just beginning to change to brown stage but then they disappear. Don't know where they go but I have never seen an adult at Hudson.

Love that orange hydroid! I've never seen anything like that; I'll have to keep my eyes open.

Jan, the job you do of blending photography above and below the water with artwork is truly unique.

What a gorgeous weather. And I am sick... Cough kept me now out of water for the whole sunny week
and now the rain is returning. And I am still coughing :(
I had a sad encounter on local beach - Gray whale was found dead two weeks ago. Only today
I managed to see her - I wish I could see her before she got all cut up ...
I have mixed feelings about posting this, but death is part of life and she ended on my home
island, so I call her yet another of my Whidbey Critters ...

It's sad to see the ending of something, even though we all end. No food in the digestive tract sounds to me as though she either had major mouth problems or was ill. Eating is a pretty basic drive; if something is not eating, it is either fairly sick or physically cannot eat.

Sad but inevitable. As you say it is a fact that all that lives must die and it's a sign of our humanity that we care.

I hope that someone follows through and tells us why this mighty creature starved.

As I was reading up on the Gray whale, which appeared in my neighborhood under a rather
sad circumstances, I came upon an interesting bits of information about two critters closely
associated with the gentle giant. Since the chances that I could get a closer look at these
while the whale is alive and well, I took the opportunity to take a second look at dead whale
and indeed I found what I was looking for. The Gray whale barnacle and the Gray whale lice
which make the giant their exclusive home. I always thought that the barnacles I see on
swimming whales in the wild are the ordinary ones, that grow on pilings and rocks. Not so.



One of the barnacles on the beached is still alive, sixteen days after being stranded ...

Not many of the Gray whale lice remain, I guess they would get picked by birds fast ...

So far, there are not many scavengers visible around the site, Sunday I saw few eagles
on nearby trees, crows and seagulls are not interested, no crabs ... I will try to visit
the whale time to time and see how it progresses. I will keep you posted...

Jan, this thread is such a marvelous treasure! I always am learning something new from it.

Thanks so much for making NWDC the "home" of this never-ending source of knowledge and education about our waters.

- John

I'm glad you went back to check out the barnacles and the whale lice. Really fascinating stuff about them burrowing into the skin (creepy crawly icky too!). I remember when our kids got lice in elementary school - EWWWW! I'd hate to be a whale with the size of these monster lice!

- Janna