Northwest Dive Club

The virus did it.
The Illustrated version

more on sea stars, even if you are probably getting tired of them ...

Taking the road less traveled ? Only the snails know.

Suddenly I am hearing the Beach Boys "I Get Around" playing inside my head!

Great visibility at my weekly Sea Star Wasting Syndrome survey at Langley, spotted Lion's Mane Jelly above,
not trailing its stinging train, so I ascended to take few selfies with fisheye lens ...
No diver or critter was harmed in the process

Sunny and windy at Keystone today. Visibility hampered by fine silt which seems to cover
everything and being stirred by the currents. But I was lucky to witness two Lingcod being
cleaned by Scalyhead sculpin. I tried video too, but the fisheye lens was not the right tool
for this encounter.


Hard to see, but there is a small fish in that big mouth !
http://jankocian.smugmug.com/Other/New- ... &k=GBjjjMc

Fabulous behavior documentation!

Very cool!

wow those are great pics!! I bet that is a lot less painful then going to the dentist!!!
I love Keystone!!I I really want to go back soon.

More from Keystone Sunday dive...

In Southern California, the sea urchins are eaten by fish, among them sheepheads. Outside of the MPAs, where fishing is prohibited, the urchins have proliferated, eating the kelp holdfasts, and creating "urchin barrens". It is quite striking how two sites on an island can be entirely different, based on the fishing regulations. I guess we won't see much difference in central Puget Sound, where we have little kelp, anyway, but I wonder about places like Salt Creek?

Here's looking at you, kid ....

Holy wow, that last shot is amazing.

Unlike other jellies, Moon jellies carry their eggs ...

Snowed in, going through some of my old books - the artists of yesteryear were really, really good.

Jan K wrote:Snowed in, going through some of my old books - the artists of yesteryear were really, really good.

Amen.
-Curt
p.s. What a neat book to have in your collection.

Every year, hundreds of dogwinkle snails congregated on the same rock in the shallows at Keystone Jetty.
This year I found them down at 53 feet. I wonder if the demise of Sunflower stars has something to do
with this, as the large stars usually avoided the shallows. Did the temperature changed ? Who knows ...
I will look for them next year ...

And after a month and some, the snails go their way, planning their next year party somewhere else ...

Some of the snow around the house melted so I loaded my gear and hit the Keystone Jetty.
Little bit silty, but I was lucky to find Scalyhead sculpin with eyes bigger that his stomach.
At least that is what it looked like for the time I was watching him. ( It is a male).

Incredible!

Thank you Tom,
here is yet another angle :

Less sea stars = more scallops ...

Whitespotted greenling male guarding eggs, laid by different females.

Great shots! I love the wide angle, the Whitespotted really pops and the clouds of perch add so much to the pictures!