HCDOP surveys March 2008 - 666th dive!

[nwscubamom]

Thanks to Doug, Barb, Lynne, Valerie, Nolan, David and Don Coleman of Pacific Adventure Charters for participating in yet another monthly survey of Hood Canal for the Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program, sponsored by Washington Scuba Alliance. We've been doing these monthly surveys since Oct 2006. We surveyed Pulali Point East, and Elephant Wall, and conducted both transect surveys and REEF surveys.

And, as I discovered once I got home and logged my dives, the dive at Elephant Wall was my Devil's Dive - #666! Drats, I had wanted to do something special for that dive, like wearing horns or something.

Anyway, thought you'd enjoy a few photos of the day!

Here's the group - me, Barb Roy, David Jennings, Nolan Grose, Lynne Flaherty, Valerie Lyttle, and Doug Marcoux:


One cool find down deep was this small Tan Cup Coral...not an Orange Cup Coral, but a different species. Very pretty with transparent tentacles!


The vis on Pulali east was lacking considerably - it was all we could do to keep track of the team of three on that dive! Even down to about 100 feet the vis was about 5 feet. The good part about this is that the critters thought it was nighttime, so I think we got to see THIS fella because he thought it was night! It's (I'm pretty sure) a Slim Sculpin - a critter I've never seen before! (apologies, the photo editor appears to have chopped off his nose!)


One of the ID features of this guy are his long nasal spines...check 'em out!


More photos can be found here:
http://nwgeogirl.smugmug.com/gallery/20 ... #160700619

Enjoy and thanks to all the participants!

- Janna

[LCF]

This was great fun, and thank you, Janna, for including me in the day's activities. It was amazingly educational to do the transect survey and see how the animals stratify themselves by depth. And I did get to see one vermilion rockfish!

[sekhmet]

Very nice- and the number is 6 is a lucky number in many cultures- three times the luck!
Recently a marine biologist friend was out on survey and they aged a vermillion rockfish that was almost 1m (3 feet) long, she was a grandma fish. Anyway, this fish turned out to be 148 years old, so this fish was born during the Civil War and who knows how long these fish do live.....! All the more reason to conserve them as much as possible from over harvesting as they have been hammered on in many areas. They are so beautiful too, what a treat!

[nwscubamom]

Wow, that's amazing!! My Milton Love rockfish book says that Vermilions only live to be about 60 years, although they think females live a bit longer than that. 148 years old would be quite a record. Are you sure it wasn't a Yelloweye Rockfish your friend was talking about? That would still be amazing and quite a find for that species as well since they are known to live to about 120 years old or so...

I love rockfish!!

- Janna

[LCF]

You know, on reflection, I wonder whether your 666th dive was more of the reason for my drysuit flood than my choice of underwear . . .

[Sounder]

You know, on reflection, I wonder whether your 666th dive was more of the reason for my drysuit flood than my choice of underwear . . .

That'll teach you to dive with people on their 666th dive!! When mine comes, I'll definitely warn everyone... we'll plan on a dive, but when everyone ends up having problems, I'll buy the first round.

It was a great day and I'm glad we were able to continue collecting data. Lynne is a great addition to the HCDOP team!!