Loggerhead eats oil rig

[archman]

Where is Mary Wicksten's lab? I might have contacted her once about the "lightbulb anemones" on the rigs.

Wicksten handles (directly or indirectly) most invertebrate ID's, and is usually the diver sitting on the bottom, peering under rocks and dead coral to flush out little critters. Her lab's at TAMU's Department of Biology.
http://www.bio.tamu.edu/FACMENU/FACULTY/WickstenM.htm

Emma picked up her Master's degree there several years back, under Dave Owens. TAMU doesn't have a sea turtle lab anymore, unfortunately (unless one counts Landry's Galveston stuff).

 

[bvmjethead]

The pictures are really awesome. Looks like visibility was pretty decent as well.

Were these taken recently?

 

[louisianadiver]

bvmjethead: The pics were taken on Aug. 27.

diver 85: I was on a charter (Fling). Another diver and I took turns for shots, but before long there was nothing but bubbles and fins around the turtle.

archman: Maybe I didn't correspond with Mary. The woman I spoke with was in Kansas. -Clay

 

[alcina]

Love the blissful pose in #2!!

 

[archman]

archman: Maybe I didn't correspond with Mary. The woman I spoke with was in Kansas. -Clay

Might have been Daphne Fautin from the University of Kansas. Except she does anemones rather than tunicates.

If that turtle was near the Banks, it may be a local resident. Emma would like that, probably.

 

[Mako Mark]

Hmmmmm. Oilrig, its whats for dinner...

 

[Larry C]

Great shots, Clay.