The next installment in The Eyes Have It series is a Red Irish Lord (Hemilepidotus hemilepidotus) photographed in the Hood Canal portion of Puget Sound.
Category: Underwater
A definite hallmark of PNW diving, the Giant Plumose Anemone (Metridium farcimen) is a pretty cool photography subject – especially when the conditions are right…
During a dive at the Blue Heron Bridge, I would usually find the Bumblebee Shrimp under these Purple Urchins, and not a ton of critters eat urchins, so I was surprised to find this crab walking around trying to munch on this one…
Along with Giant Pacific Octopus, I got to see Pacific Red Octopus (Octopus rubescens) while diving in the Pacific North West. On a dive on Thanksgiving, we had hoped to find some Stubby Squid which had been spotted at this same dive site, so when…
Alright – to wrap out Nudibranch Week 2.0 here are a couple shots of Leopard Dorid Nudibranchs (Diaulula sandiengensis) and some Giant Nudibranchs (Dendronotus iris). The Giant Nudis can get up to 12 inches long but I the ones here are actually fairly small with…
We might as well stick the the color theme today, and we’ll take a look at a bunch of yellow nudibranchs. I’m going to skip trying to ID each one, but I think there are Noble Sea Lemons (Peltodoris nobilis), Monterey Sea Lemons (Doris montereyensis),…
Today we’ll look at three different nudibranchs that though unrelated all definitely share the common feature that orange is certainly the defining color. First up is a single shot of a Cockerell’s Nudibranch (Limacia cockerelli) which was a surprising treat to find. Next up is…
I am not sure on the ID for these first nudibranchs – or if they’re even the same species – but I am pretty sure they are in the Aeolid family. They were all tiny little things… each less than half an inch long. This…
No – these were not photographed in Alaska, but I guess that is where these Alaskan Skeleton Shrimp (Caprella alaskana) were originally identified. I’d seen them on a number of dives in Puget Sound, but one dive in particular we came across a buoy line…
A fairly common sighting in the Puget Sound waters, I got good opportunities to photograph plenty of Red Rock Crabs (Cancer productus)… including multiple mating pairs. They can grow to about 8 inches across and you can see they have quite powerful claws.
I am pretty sure this is a Varadero Doto (Doto varaderoensis) nudibranch. They are fairly small – only getting to a maximum of 1/2″ long – and they feed on hydroids (the things that kind of look like weird shaped umbrellas here). I’m not sure…
An extremely common shrimp in the waters of Puget Sound, these Coonstripe Shrimp (Pandalus danae) were able to be spotted on almost every dive and the fact that they grow to about 6 inches long meant some good close-up detail shots were fairly easy to…
I am not sure why this Blackline Fireworm reared up like this – perhaps to increase its ability to catch scents on the currents to search out its next meal or a mate… or maybe this is just a form of fireworm yoga and this…
Not all sea stars have five arms… like this basket star and this other juvenile star which might be a Morning Sun Star, but it is certainly too small to tell for certain.
