Northwest Dive Club

Hi Jan,
Very cool images!
I found this in the abstract of the paper describing this species - https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... fe-history
Members of this species are unisexual as are other members of the genus, but only females were found. An ootype and a type of accessory reproductive gland not known from other Kronborgia spp. are described, but they are probably present in other members of the genus.
BTW: Have you ever noticed that parasites are always described as "nasty"? When will we see one described as "cute" or "friendly"?
Parasitically yours,
Alex

Thanks Alex.
On the subject of that parasite. I just cannot call a creature which buries into another critter and eats it from inside out "cute" and definitelly not "friendly". Just my 2cents

Definitely not a "cute" parasite!

So do you guys think that's what's going on here too?



Saw this at cove 2 the other day.

Greetings,
That appears to be the egg mass of a parasitic copepod.
http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20868
Nastily yours,
Alex

Although not listed as rare, this is my first find of this kelp.
Red opuntia kelp added to my list

Although the sea star wasting disappeared from the radar lately, as most divers report healthy populations, at Langley I found few still dying from this dreadful disease. :(

Crabs and shrimps are almost always lurking around the Crimson anemones.
When I swim by one of them, I always stop to take a closer look.

Slug romance.
I came across these two Monterey dorids at the start of my dive at Deception Pass. I stayed in the vicinity, checking on them periodically, to see if or when they will do what two slugs usually do when they meet. From past encounters with nudibranchs it took just couple minutes for the pair to line up head to tail and start mating. These two stayed together my entire dive head to head, almost as if they were exchanging "sweet nothings", touching and, but never parting . After 50 minutes I finally had to leave them as the and so I did not find out if they finally did make up...

Among the thousands of Green sea urchins at Keystone, one became a meal to some other critter and that enabled me to take picture of what the grazing machine, called Aristotle's lantern looks like.

Wow, what fantastic macro detail Jan!

Keystone now home to a large school of very gravid Puget Sound rockfish

When I surveyed Langley harbor on July 18, only few sea stars were showing sign of sickness, when I revisited the site two weeks later, I found devastation of large scale. The Sea Star Wasting Syndrome hit with full vengeance. It is heartbreaking to see pieces of sea stars littering the seafloor, and many in the process if disintegrating. At Langley, at the moment it affects two species , the Mottled and Ochre stars. The Pink short-spined and the Leather stars look healthy. :(

The trials and tribulations in the life of Fried egg jellyfish ...



and some unedited videos :
https://jankocian.smugmug.com/Underwate ... /i-n5HfzDn
https://jankocian.smugmug.com/Underwate ... /i-DNXFSsp

When I returned to my two favorite sea star sites after almost two week absence, I was encouraged by what I found on my Monday dive at Coupeville. All stars were healthy. But what I found on Tuesday at Langley, only 17 miles away in straight line from Coupeville, shocked me. Place which until recently teemed with sea stars was a sad sight of misery. Depressing :(

Little medusa, it might not have brain, but it knows how to swim efficiently

cute! I love jellyfish season. Great shot Jan.

Painted greenling pair - mating dance


and video clip:
https://jankocian.smugmug.com/Underwate ... /i-k9Z4cTn

Fried egg jellies, their fragile beauty float all around Whidbey waters these days.

Having fun with White dirona and Painted greenling. My focusing light wasn't working, so I could not find the eggs the fish was protecting, but it kept on coming back as I was trying to get a good angle on the slug.

Hi Jan,
Gorgeous images!
Several years ago the Feiro Center hosted a talk on nudibranchs by Dave Behrens. I asked him about D. albolineata eating snails and he basically called BS and said that their primary diet is actually bryozoans (which seem to be in these photos). I just looked at Sea Slug Forum, Slugsite, & Wikipedia and it seems that the whole thing about this species eating snails is slowly fading away.
Edibly yours,
Alex

I did check with Dave Behrens before I posted it, and he was surprised that they did eat snails, but when I sent him the link from Sea Slug Forum
(Robilliard (1971 observed it tending to specialize on either bryozoans or small snails in two different habitats, depending on which prey item was most abundant.), he did not call it BS.
Also Hans Bertsch included it in his new Invertebrates of Northwest Mexico, which is now at the printer to be published shortly.
I agree, it did not sound plausible when I first read it...

Scalyhead sculpin, probably the most common sculpin in our waters.
Keystone Jetty.

Nice one Jan!

Yes, they are lurking everywhere!

Sea urchins have more than just spines to help in their defense against hungry sea stars. When I saw this Leather star gingerly maneuvering among the Green sea urchins, I noticed tiny "thorns" embedded in its flesh. That is how I found Globiferous pedicellaria
(I did not know about them before.)