A day at the park ...

[MXGratefulDiver]

Enjoyed a great day at Edmonds Underwater Park today with Penelope. We got in two long dives ... 81 minutes and 71 minutes, respectively. Vis ... especially on the first dive ... was about as good as I've ever seen at Edmonds. When we first entered the water it was basically just clear ... hard to guess what it actually was, I'm not used to seeing it that good. It slowly got worse as the day went on and was probably only 25 or 30 feet by the end of the second dive.

Anyway, here's some of what we saw ... http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/Nu7qz6Gx

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TSandM]

Some beautiful shots there -- I particularly liked the rockfish looking up, and the jelly.

We dove there yesterday, and went out to the Triumph, and there were mixed schools of shiner perch, tubesnouts, and probably over a hundred pile perch, all intermixed, like God's kaleidoscope. I sat in awe and delight and just watched for minutes. The viz was fabulous, and the fish were outlined in the sunlight.

Plus, we saw the single biggest ling cod I have ever yet seen. I was almost afraid of it. It was probably as big as I am, and looked older than Methuselah. It had clearly seen many divers in its time, and was unconcerned.

Edmonds can be an utterly delightful dive.

 

[do it easy]

Those are some neat pictures- I'm not sure what that second one is, but it's amazing. It's the one that looks like translucent, white plastic spikes.

I thought those ling cod were little fish. :11: I'm having second thoughts about diving there...

 

[Ben_ca]

Bob,
Thanks for sharing... amazing shots... The Monterey crowd will have to come up there one of these days and check out those sites for our selves

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Some beautiful shots there -- I particularly liked the rockfish looking up, and the jelly.

We dove there yesterday, and went out to the Triumph, and there were mixed schools of shiner perch, tubesnouts, and probably over a hundred pile perch, all intermixed, like God's kaleidoscope. I sat in awe and delight and just watched for minutes. The viz was fabulous, and the fish were outlined in the sunlight.

Plus, we saw the single biggest ling cod I have ever yet seen. I was almost afraid of it. It was probably as big as I am, and looked older than Methuselah. It had clearly seen many divers in its time, and was unconcerned.

Edmonds can be an utterly delightful dive.

Our first dive was to the Triumph, and several of the early shots in the photo show were taken there ... from the Dendronotis Rufus (found down by the rudder) to the rockfish with the small schooling fish in the background (taken from his perch on what used to be the bowsprit). We also got to watch a fairly large cabezon swoop down off the boat and snatch up a big crab off the bottom. Penelope chased it around for a while, trying to get a picture of it with crab legs dangling out of both sides of its mouth, but the cabezon didn't want us disturbing his lunch and kept swimming away every time she approached it.

It's incredible to see how much the Triumph has deterioriated in just five years. I can remember when she was put down, and people used to penetrate and swim inside of her. Not much left but the "rib cage" anymore.

Those are some neat pictures- I'm not sure what that second one is, but it's amazing. It's the one that looks like translucent, white plastic spikes.

That was a nudibranch called Dendronotis Rufus (aka giant red dendronotid) and that one was about 6 inches in length.

I thought those ling cod were little fish. I'm having second thoughts about diving there...

On our second dive we went out to the old dry dock, and encountered Charley ... I hadn't seen her in a couple of years and thought she had died or something. Charley is over five feet long, and with a head that's easily as wide as my shoulders. We were swimming between what's left of the struts, and she was laying on the bottom watching us ... clearly pregnant. Made me a little nervous, because if she decided she didn't want us there, we had no quick way to leave. But she just watched us go by ... I decided not to disturb her by attempting a picture ... you gotta respect a fish that big.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[mjh]

Some really nice shots, you are really becoming a master of compostion.

 

[jeckyll]

...
That was a nudibranch called Dendronotis Rufus (aka giant red dendronotid) and that one was about 6 inches in length.
...

Bob, I thought DoItEasy was asking about the second picture, the White-Lined Dirona

Great pictures btw!

Bjorn

 

[do it easy]

Bob, I thought DoItEasy was asking about the second picture, the White-Lined Dirona

Great pictures btw!

Bjorn

Thanks, it did seem odd that he said it was a giant red dendronotid.

 

[Cacia]

wow. very cool. What is Charlie, anyway?

Is one of those shots a nematode?

 

[dsteding]

wow. very cool. What is Charlie, anyway?

I'm guessing she is a rather large ling cod . . .