Layin' 'Em Down

dwashbur · Post by **dwashbur** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 6:47 pm

It seems to be mollusk egg-laying time, at least it appeared so on our dive at the Narrows bridge this morning. We found this huge mass of what appear to be snail eggs, if all the snails (frilled dogwinkles? W2W p. 109) gathered around them are any indication; they looked a lot like squid egg masses that we've seen, only in miniature:

Then a bit further on, we came upon this leafy hornmouth in the process of setting out her own mass:

Those and a couple of nice heart crabs saved what was otherwise a singularly unspectacular dive.

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:15 pm

When I took Laurel LeFever's Fish ID class, he showed us slides of the Hornmouth orgies. About a year later, I was at Sunrise when I found one, and I was so excited to recognize what it was!

Laurel's stated purpose for his class is to convince the students that there are more things to get excited about in the Sound than Wolf Eels and GPOs, and he succeeds. If you get excited about the little things, there is no dull dive, just as you posted, dwashburn.

dwashbur · Post by **dwashbur** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:48 pm

Our standard dive motto is "Think Small." If you just glance through a book like Behrens' Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs and check the sizes, an awful lot of them are under 2 inches long. Ditto for a lot of the more interesting sculpins, shrimps, you name it. That's why, in addition to thinking small and taking an ungodly number of pictures, we pretty well set the standard for "slow." If you're a diver who likes to cover a lot of ground, don't dive with us! Because if you look up "slow" in your dictionary, you'll probably see our picture

But if you want to see lots and lots of cool stuff that most of the "fast" divers never see, c'mon along!

Penopolypants · Post by **Penopolypants** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 11:15 pm

I love trying to id eggs. I saw one of those too at DIW....

http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?t=3705

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:48 am

Dave, you sound like EXACTLY the kind of diver I'd LOVE to dive with -- Even the people I enjoy most move too fast a lot of the time. (I kept losing my team on the first dive at Octopus Hole yesterday, because I'd try to get in close to look at something tiny, and they'd just kept swimming . . .)

dwashbur · Post by **dwashbur** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:30 am

Where are you located? We're in Bremerton but go most places south of, uh, the Pole

Dusty2 · Post by **Dusty2** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 3:57 pm

If you like slow, dive with me sometime. Dave and family had no problem keeping up with me. I guaranty you will see me shootin pics and wonder "what in the heck is he seeing". For each time you go in a little closer you will see a new level of critters you never saw before! The only limit is your eyesight and your patiatents.

Dusty2 · Post by **Dusty2** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:11 pm

LCF wrote:When I took Laurel LeFever's Fish ID class, he showed us slides of the Hornmouth orgies. About a year later, I was at Sunrise when I found one, and I was so excited to recognize what it was!

Laurel's stated purpose for his class is to convince the students that there are more things to get excited about in the Sound than Wolf Eels and GPOs, and he succeeds. If you get excited about the little things, there is no dull dive, just as you posted, dwashburn.

I agree with Laurel 100%. The more you slow down the more you will see. and once you see these things you will see more and more every time you go out.

My favorite spot seldom has wolfies or GPO's but I can see 10 or more spieces of nudies and numerous fishes on every dive. I never get bored. Each night when I go thru my photos I find something I need to go back and get a better shot of.

Scubak · Post by **Scubak** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:05 pm

I always try and go slow so my dive buddies think I am crazy while I peruse a 12" x 12" square for several minutes and find an entire "city" going on.
I love it...
K

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:27 am

Dusty, if you have a place where you're finding that many different nudibranchs, will you take me there? Nudis are my favorite . . .

dwashbur · Post by **dwashbur** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:11 am

Then his favorite place is where you want to go. We've been there with him and found no less than 8 nudi species on one dive, 4 of which were new to us.

Dusty2 · Post by **Dusty2** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:37 pm

LCF wrote:Dusty, if you have a place where you're finding that many different nudibranchs, will you take me there? Nudis are my favorite . . .

Anytime. I'm up here now and for the next week.