Northwest Dive Club

Closing also conserves water when the anenome is exposed by the ebbing tide. You'll notice that all of them out of the water are closed when you are tidepooling. I found that some of them are sensitive to infra-red light, which is primarily absorbed in the upper few centimeters of water. This infra-red sensitivity also explained some of the cyclical closing observed in aquariasts. That was part of my master's research.
-Curt

Curt, you are absolutely right. Professor Daphne G. Fautin did include it in her explanation :
"This is not true of the anemones you seen when you dive, of course, but a reason intertidal anemones close is to retain water while the tide is out."
I did not include that in my pages since I was really interested in the anemones once I put my snorkel away

I've wondered about some longer-term closures . . . the anemones at the I-beams in Cove 2 seemed to spend most of their time closed for several months (at least, no matter what time of day I dove, they were always closed, and actually looked kind of spindly and sick). Then all of a sudden, they were open again, and now they seem to be back to normal.

It's an interesting question, I think.

When I was doing my studies, some researchers claimed there was a nocturnal/diurnal effect. Closed during the day and open at night. I could not find such a relationship. I dived at different times of day and observed whether they were open/closed, and graphed them against daylight and tide seeking a correlation, but couldnt find one. I did notice the cyclical opening/closing in the aquarium, but that could be explained by repsonse to different frequencies of light. We see through the glass darkly.
-Curt

After all that snow and freeze, I was ready for a dive. Because of the forecast of wind, rain,
dogs and cats etc. , I choose the protected waters of Lagoon Point to get my fix. And it gave
me opportunity to check on he colony of invasive Ciona savignyi tunicates some of which made it
to the paper recently published by the University of Washington. It was the Northwest Dive Club
which connected the scientist with the lowly diver (me) and in October 2010 I scooped some of the
invasive rascals here in Lagoon Point into a bucket to be cut, dissected and studied and properly
disposed off
NWDC is mentioned in the paper, so I cut and paste it onto my Ciona pictures. So as you see, they
are still here, but they are not taking over. Yet.

Another encounter with a stickleback.

I think those guys get lumped into my ID class of "small silver fish".

LCF wrote:I think those guys get lumped into my ID class of "small silver fish".

They're on my ID list under "Am I ever gonna see one of these???"

LCF wrote:I think those guys get lumped into my ID class of "small silver fish".

Sounds like my birdwatching category of "LGBs" (Little Grey Birdz) Jan and Janna and all the folks who can identify these critters impress me every day I read these posts... Not to mention Jan's photo skills!


Jim

How to have fun in the first 12 inches of water ... No decompression required

Wow, Jan -- that was some mighty still water!

Back in fall quite a number of Red dendronotid slugs show up at Possession Fingers.

Every once a while I check on them down in 80 feet.


Now they started to lay eggs, somewhere I read that signals the end of them :(

I don't know what's happened, but suddenly, none of the photos in the last post are rendering for me here.

Lynne, I hope you can see it now ...
I have been looking for Lingcod egg masses on every dive since their usual annual appearance
which in the past started around the end of December. I know they have been reported from other
locales in the Sound, but for some reason, the Whidbey Lings delayed laying eggs this season.
Finally, January 23, I found seven of them. I am sure some of them might be there well before then,
but the snow episode made access to Possession Point impossible. All I know, during my last visit
there before snow, on January 10, the male Lingcod were just guarding "eggless" territories.
Numbers on egg masses given in the order I found them...

First -- I wonder if that's true of all nudibranchs, that they lay eggs and die; I've never really read anything about their life cycles, life expectancies, or anything of that sort.

Second, although I commonly dive Edmonds, which has one of the biggest populations of the biggest lings you could hope to see, I have never been attacked by a male guarding eggs. Most of the time, they just sit there and look at me; occasionally they'll raise their fins and try to look impressive. Even at Sund Rock, where one got very agitated, he made no feints at the divers. Cabbies, on the other hand . . . oh, my! I've been whacked on the head and had my dry suit bitten and DRAGGED by a cabezon not more than a foot long. Those guys are the Jack Russell Terriers of the fish world

LCF wrote:First -- I wonder if that's true of all nudibranchs, that they lay eggs and die; I've never really read anything about their life cycles, life expectancies, or anything of that sort.

Second, although I commonly dive Edmonds, which has one of the biggest populations of the biggest lings you could hope to see, I have never been attacked by a male guarding eggs. Most of the time, they just sit there and look at me; occasionally they'll raise their fins and try to look impressive. Even at Sund Rock, where one got very agitated, he made no feints at the divers. Cabbies, on the other hand . . . oh, my! I've been whacked on the head and had my dry suit bitten and DRAGGED by a cabezon not more than a foot long. Those guys are the Jack Russell Terriers of the fish world

I would have to agree with you LCF. I have been shoved and bullied my numerous Cabbies but the lings just sit there using intimidation as their primary threat.

I got hit by Lingcod once in all the years I photograph Lingcod guarding eggs. At Langley, out of all places. And the Ling wasn't that big... But as the text describes, the male Ling does attack other fish, I saw couple times at Langley one Ling actually tossing off large Sunflower star. But yes, divers are safe

More egg masses found

Don't take it for granted that lings won't attack, I had one at Sund rock just about rip my mask off but for the most part they are mostly bluff. They can really look intimidating when they want to though.

So I Swam Over the Cuckoo's Nest

That is funny!

And it lends itself to the thought that the male ling is dumber than a post and guards stuff based on color and shape?

Time to do some experiments with blocks of Styrofoam!

Time for lots of birthdays
Although I did not see daddy Kelp greenling being too diligent in guarding the eggs nestled
in maze of the Prolific Three-section Tubeworm, I did spot him occasionally in the neighborhood.
Lots of his kids were born outside the ocean waters, but they were returned into them
after the picture taking session ... Hopefully they will recognize me when they grow up and will not run away
( as their father did ), when they see me with my camera

Wow! What a treat! You get some of the coolest stuff.

FANTASTIC, Jan!

Amazing, Jan- had you been keeping an eye on the egg mass? Maybe the babies will imprint on you :luv: