Whidbey Island Critters

[Jan K]

Yummy

[Jan K]

Adding another critter to the list, a tiny hydroid, genus Zanclea, nudibranch food:

[Jan K]

Another Keystone Lingcod indulging in gluttony

[Greg Jensen]

That's why I always swallow them headfirst.

[Jan K]

That's why I always swallow them headfirst.

Sometimes it is "Six of one, half a dozen of the other" .

[LCF]

I've been happy about having hands for a lot of reasons, but I never thought about how nice it is to be able to cut up my food . . .

[dwashbur]

That is one of the most amazing picture sequences I have ever seen.

[Jan K]

Thanks Dave.
Looks like September is my turn to photograph the diet of Keystone Lingcod. ..

[Tom Nic]

Hmmmm.... there is a reason they get so big!

[LCF]

Oh, the picture with the baby wolf eel is just sad!

[Jan K]

The two "Half Face" Lings ( one left side dark, the other right side ), are still hanging around at Keystone. So it is not a passing phase ...

[LCF]

I wonder how much lings can change their coloration . . . I've certainly seen them in the usual gray, all the way to a dark golden brown.

[GearHead]

Reminds me of an old Star Trek episode.

[Jan K]

I wonder how much lings can change their coloration . . . I've certainly seen them in the usual gray, all the way to a dark golden brown.

I don't think they change their colors much, I noticed Keystone Lingcod with noticeable markings such tumors and scars, and they seem to keep their color hues throughout the years. I do notice that the very small Lings are basically same color, while the large ones sport many.

And now from the big stuff to macro. Hitchhikers on Egg Yolk Jelly ...

[LCF]

Jan, I'm beginning to think I hate you.

I have been trying for a year to get an egg-yolk jelly picture I liked.

You're taking pictures of their hitchhikers.

I think I should give my camera away . . .

[Jan K]

Jan, I'm beginning to think I hate you.

I hope not ...
Sun worship, the PNW diver way That was Monday, I am sitting in fog now.
Cloudy days in the forecast, have a great weekend whatever the weather ...

[LCF]

I'm going to celebrate the cloudy weekend by doing my very first ever dive at Deception Pass, Jan. I'm sure I won't get any Jan-worthy pictures, but I'm still excited to do the dive, after having looked at your photos for the last few years!

[Jan K]

I hope you have a great dive at the Pass, clouds or not...

[Jan K]

[Jan K]

Lately I see one on every dive.

[LCF]

Oh, Jan, as always, my hat is off to you. I take photo after photo of these guys, and they all turn out to be yellow and white blobs . . .

[Jan K]

Nothing really exciting lately. So here is a sponge. Many of them are very hard to ID.
My expert source suggests to stick with Helichondria sp.
I went through many, many links and photographs online and H. bowerbanki comes really close to what I have seen.
But I might be wrong ...

[LCF]

Fascinating shot of the "blood vessels" in the sponge!

I love the variety and shapes of sponges you find in the current sensitive areas. Sponges are one of the few things that really show up on deeper dives, too.

[Jan K]

It is fun to add another critter to the list of new finds. Even if it isn't that
beautiful. At first I thought it was a worm, but when I failed to find it in
my guide book, I turned to my internet mentor and retired marine biologist
who told me that it is not a worm but sea cucumber. And that it is unusual
to find them out in the open, for the live buried in the muck and are found
normally by collecting sediments and then sieving out the critters. I found
half a dozen of them in area where I dove many many times before throughout
the years and never seen any. Who knows what brought them out...

[LCF]

How cool! One of the wonderful things about diving here is that you can have done hundreds of dives in a given site, and still find something you've never seen before. I had one of those at C2 tonight -- a new slug! So much fun to make discoveries.