Langley Harbor, September 5th dive.
It was asad sight with so many Mottled stars wasting away, did not feel like taking pictures of that. The few Sunflower stars I did find looked healthy, but I don't know if the many I seen in the past moved away or turned into wasted goo. I hope they moved to deeper, colder water. THe Painted greenlings keep laying eggs all year around, at least it seems that way. As a good deed for the day, I released some Dungeness crabs from lost trap, left the door open to eliminate future kill...
Skyline, September 14th dive.
Finding Decorated Warbonnet during daytime is not an easy task. The dark, dreary, foggy early morning above the water probably helped to keep this one closer to the opening of the hiding crevice.
Lagoon Point, September 20th dive.
You know there are many Stout shrimps living in the marine growth under the floating docks
when they don't mind to land on your hand holding camera
Lagoon Point, September 20th dive.
The place doesn't have much of fish population, not close to the surface where the visibility is fair.
Less than 2 feet visibility below five feet all the way to the bottom, which is muck...
Langley Harbor, September 22nd dive.
The bad news is that Sea Star Wasting Disease is now in full swing here, out of 5 sea star species found here, only the Leather star is not affected. Yet. The large Pycnos either died off or moved to deeper water. Many Ochre, Mottled, Spiny Pink and few remaining juvenile Pycnos are showing signs of stress, wasting or total destruction. There are still many healthy ones, but overall, the numbers are way down from just month ago.
Langley Harbor dive, September 28 dive.
It was not a dive just to talk to bunch of gunnels.
Sea star wasting continues unabated.
The search for the WHY answers continues.
I did not find Pycnos suitable for the project. The ones I did find were returned to the sea unharmed...
Skyline September 30th dive continued:
This head lurks in the forest above the trail overlooking the part of Skyline wall we dive.
Underwater it is not so scary
Holmes Harbor October 5th dive.
As I moved piece of Sugar Wrack kelp to get better view of the fish,
it swam up on my glove and kept on moving up my arm
Holmes Harbor October 5th dive.
The Hooded nudibranchs returned. Unlike in the past, this season they congregate on the blades of Sugar wrack kelp instead on Eelgrass. At least at the area I dived. The visibility in the Eelgrass was dismal two feet so I could miss them. Also I came across couple of Burrowing sea cucumbers which I last found here out in the open back in 2013.
Holmes Harbor October 5th dive.
Sea Star Wasting survey. One of the few places where I find some Sunflower stars.
But most of them very young, small ones.