Northwest Dive Club

Alex is correct in that the shape of the ghost shrimp's claw looks more like a gigas, but as noted the eyestalks are those of a californiensis. I've been fooled by ones like this in the past- it could be that regenerating claws take a while to develop the expansion that is normally seen in large californiensis males.
Adult male gigas are really spectacular- way, way more dramatic looking than the one shown in my book- as their claw can be bigger than the rest of their body.

Thank you Greg for your input. I am amazed how rare sight it is for me to see the shrimp itself when I swim over so many of their "volcanic" mounds.

Well, you saw how clumsy and slow it was walking around in the open. Once they're out of the burrow they're toast- he's probably in a staghorn's tummy by now.

The time for watch out for menacing Lingcod is here again.
As every winter the male Lings get in sour mood when we get close to their egg nests.
I found three new ones yesterday.

Man they scare me now since that guy at cove 2 tried to ram me head on twice! I will stay far away from these protective daddies! Great shots Jan!

It looks like the wasting disease is still with us :(

Sad :(

Another dive, another dollar ... or two, or ....

Love it

Another critter from Keystone, some inflated and some deflated Broadbase tunicates:

Just another visit to dentist, Keystone style




plus a raw video, no lights, wrong lens...
https://jankocian.smugmug.com/Underwate ... K-1920.mp4

Any port in storm for the wolf-eels ...

Deception Pass February 2, 2016 :

Another visit - Langley Harbor sea star survey - no wasting observed, baby stars doing fine ...

Jan: Those tires were not sunk as an artificial reef, but as a floating breakwater around the docks to dampen wave energy. This was prior to the building of the wood pile structure that now surrounds the docks. I remember being moored on the outside float and still getting bounced around. The tires were not only inadequate protection, but they failed to stay afloat. I suspect the cost at the time was minimal, surely less than the cost of removing them.
Go seastars! Don't get wasted!
-Curt

The Northern Kelp Crab is now a most numerous crab specie in many Whidbey dive sites ...

Giant nudibranch going through the moves

Actually I don't think these are one of the nudies that uses nematocysts for its own defense-
see http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3386

Last few days were quite beautiful, with lots of sunshine and calm seas, just right.
The tides were good too, Keystone Jetty provided plenty of relaxing dives. With the usual fare of Lingcod guarding their eggs, I found a horde of Graceful decorator crabs, mostly females, piled up in one spot, quite unusual sight for me, I never seen that before. I don't really know what it is all about, but it is a sight to behold...

Ooh, all those crabs are kinda creepy!

Awesome stuff Jan. These shots are so cool.... And as p-pants said, a little creepy

Yeah, I saw that pile yesterday too! Scubajess and I were chatting about it on our SI. we thought it was very odd as well

Well, since the crabs are too creepy for you, here some sea stars

For years I did not pay much attention to kelp, using it as a backdrop in pictures, looking for critters on it and around it. The Bull kelp commanded
more attention. Until I noticed, that some of the "sticks" started sprouting new leaves I realized, that there is much more to this algae than just another seaweed. It can live up to 25 years and sports "tree rings" to prove it

I was surprised to learn that, in an evolutionary sense, brown algae are not plants. Plants, animals, fungi, and brown algae each evolved multicellularity independently of each other and consequently have very different cell structures. People, plants, and brown algae are -- as far as we know -- equally related to each other. (But people and fungi are closer!) - Carl
references:
http://tolweb.org/Eukaryotes/3
http://www.lucasbrouwers.nl/blog/2010/0 ... a-genomes/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicellular_organism