God's Pocket 2019

[Merry]

The beautiful spring conditions in British Columbia served up a wealth of exciting animals to shoot and to make matters worse, Phil and I were there for 2 weeks.

The whole enchilada is at: God's Pocket 2019

A few of my favorites:

It took 6 trips to God's Pocket to find a grunt sculpin, Rhamphocottus richardsoni and Phil is eating his heart out.

Juvenile Puget Sound king crab, Lopholithodes mandtii

The luckiest find of all, a spotted ratfish hatchling, Hydrolagus colliei. New Zealand scientist, Clinton Duffy, said that it's unusual to find a ratfish at the surface and that at 3 - 4" and with soft, over-sized fins, it must be a hatchling.

Spotted ratfish hatchling

Juvenile wolf eel, Anarrhichthys ocellatus

Mosshead warbonnet, Chirolophis nugator

Basket star, Gorgonocephalus eucnemis

Armpit blood star, Henricia sp.

The water column had many swimming polychaete worms, Epigamia magna

Tubesnouts, Aulorhynchus flavidus

Orange feather duster worm, Chone aurantiaca

DiverMerry.com

 

[SandyRobinson]

Very nice - thanks for sharing.

 

[dberry]

Lovely photos - thank you.

What was the water temperature?

 

[Merry]

My Galileo Luna computer registered 46 degrees and Phil's Luna registered 47 on every dive. Even with maximum exposure protection it's tough to last more than about 55 minutes!

 

[chillyinCanada]

Brrrrrrr

But you got great captures

 

[rjgiddings]

Merry - these are fantastic ! Thanks for putting those online. Isn't that one photo of Bull Kelp - where you're not sure of the id on it ? Photo 16 of 21 ? scientific name: Nereocystis luetkeana (if I believe the google).

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Nereocystis luetkeana, Bull kelp