Biodiversity_guy
Contributor
I started diving this summer in the PNW. Until last weekend, most of my dives have been in low/non current areas in south puget sound (e.g., sunnyside, Les Davis-thanks for the new stairs WA Scuba Alliance 
). This past weekend I did my AOW dives and got into a few more interesting areas. The tides worked out well to allow us to dive more high current areas during the slack times, so Friday nite we dove Titlow (1st night dive) and Saturday noonish we did Day Island.
WOW. How fun. With increased currents comes increased nutrients and oxygen so the invertebrate populations were most impressive.
The highlight was coming across a large "giant Pacific octopus".
ctopus: He (?) was out in the open, looking like a rock. His head/mantle was about the size of several basketballs combined, with arms several feet long. He did not seem disturbed as we slowly made our way up to him. He did not change colors or move, or seem agitated. We removed our gloves and stroked his mantle and tentacles. After a few minutes he jetted over about 40 feet and settled back down. We waited a couple of minutes and approached him again, respectfully. After a couple more minutes of interactions we retreated and left him alone. How neat!
The next day we did two boat dives with PacAdventures, up on the Hood Canal. What a pleasure diving off a boat. Much easier than lugging all that gear from the car to the water as is the case when shore diving. Hot cocoa, soup and hot cookies between dives. I could get use to this!
The fish were larger and more plentiful on the Hood Canal. Several species of rockfish, wolf eels, lingcod, and a couple of very large jellyfish that we successfully avoided. Because Hood Canal has lesser currents, the invertebrate population was less than the puget sound sites, but we did see a couple of species of nudibranchs.
All in all, the AOW experience was an excellent one. I have more confidence but still recognize I am low on the learning curve. This past weekend is why I know I got into diving!
). This past weekend I did my AOW dives and got into a few more interesting areas. The tides worked out well to allow us to dive more high current areas during the slack times, so Friday nite we dove Titlow (1st night dive) and Saturday noonish we did Day Island.WOW. How fun. With increased currents comes increased nutrients and oxygen so the invertebrate populations were most impressive.
The highlight was coming across a large "giant Pacific octopus".
ctopus: He (?) was out in the open, looking like a rock. His head/mantle was about the size of several basketballs combined, with arms several feet long. He did not seem disturbed as we slowly made our way up to him. He did not change colors or move, or seem agitated. We removed our gloves and stroked his mantle and tentacles. After a few minutes he jetted over about 40 feet and settled back down. We waited a couple of minutes and approached him again, respectfully. After a couple more minutes of interactions we retreated and left him alone. How neat! The next day we did two boat dives with PacAdventures, up on the Hood Canal. What a pleasure diving off a boat. Much easier than lugging all that gear from the car to the water as is the case when shore diving. Hot cocoa, soup and hot cookies between dives. I could get use to this!
The fish were larger and more plentiful on the Hood Canal. Several species of rockfish, wolf eels, lingcod, and a couple of very large jellyfish that we successfully avoided. Because Hood Canal has lesser currents, the invertebrate population was less than the puget sound sites, but we did see a couple of species of nudibranchs.
All in all, the AOW experience was an excellent one. I have more confidence but still recognize I am low on the learning curve. This past weekend is why I know I got into diving!
