Northwest Dive Club

Jan K wrote: And this is
the fourth dead seal I run across in last three years here. All within one
hundred feet radius.
]

I've found several dead seals and sea lions, perhaps a dozen, while walking beaches this year. Also scattered bones. I assume it is the result of a high population. There was a bounty on seals until 1960. In 1972, they became protected. The population then was estimated as no more than 3000. The NOAA website states that over 30,000 were counted in the last full census. In this picture, taken earlier in the month, Chelsea checks out one carcass.
-Curt

Beer, coffee, cucumber - crabs with identity problems

It is not a thing of beauty, but it has place in our underwater world nevertheless.

What really astonishes me about that addition is how you EVER recognized that as an animal, rather than just some debris!

LCF wrote:What really astonishes me about that addition is how you EVER recognized that as an animal, rather than just some debris!

When I was researching other tubeworms in books and on internet, I came across pictures of this one, so from that moment I was looking for it

Chitons congregate in the shallows of Deception Pass

Mystery blisters on bodies of Red sea cucumber. Did not see anything like this before.
Hopefully not another disease :(

Wow that doesn't look good at all. I saw your post on Facebook and it seems some very seasoned divers and critter watchers have never seen this either, which makes it a little more alarming. Also to add is that you saw this on more than one....

Hi Jan,

Isn't it also pretty unusual to see even one (let alone two) of these cukes in the open? At the Feiro Center and in the intertidal areas around Port Angeles we don't even see their feeding tentacles from about October through March!

Cryptically yours,

Alex

H-beam dining room for the stars. Reservations recommended.
Serving young barnacles daily

Time of the year again. Lay those eggs Lingcod females ...

Wow. She is gravely gravid!

Makes me hurt just to look at her!

Three different females. And I already saw four egg masses guarded by males there.
No shortage of Lingcod at Keystone Jetty.

When mares are close to parturition, they look miserable -- they don't move around much, and may lose their appetites. It has always appeared to me that these extremely gravid fish look equally uncomfortable.

And after eggs are laid, it is the male Lingcod's turn...

Sandy bottom residents

Plumose anemone tries to avoid becoming sea star's meal ...

Those long white threads coming from the anemone are called acontia. They're packed with nematocysts and are ciliated-- they are normally used in the gut to subdue ingested prey but can be extruded through the body wall for defense. I had one under a microscope the other day and it was fascinating to watch it crawl around like some kind of weird worm, weaving around and coiling up like a watchspring. And of course watching the nematocysts fire.

Update on LAngley Harbor sea stars ...

Deception Pass- few stars- none of them sick.

It might be dark and dreary above, but beneath the Possession Point waters,
some color can always to be found

When I returned to Deception Pass to check on Red sea cucumbers and their mystery blisters,
I did not find much change. Since I had more time to look around, I found more of them. But interestingly, all of the blistered cuks were in one area only. On both side outside it, the few cucumbers I found were all normal, without blisters. None of them are feeding, maybe wrong time of year, day...

More sea star stuff, Langley is the most prolific star nursery on Whidbey at this moment

Follow up on the previous post,
when the regeneration doesn't necessarily follows the blueprint

Hi Jan,

Very cool images and I love the 115 year old reference material!

What is the time span of this collection - are the photos relatively recent or were they accumulated over several years?

Freakishly yours,
Alex