deepdiverbc
Contributor
I found this decorator crab on my second dive. It's amazing how they use sponge and seaweed to camouflage themselves.
This one had me thinking it was a hermit sponge that takes over for the shell of a hermit crab to escape nudibranchs. If it is, the plan backfired. On second look I am now thinking it is a sharpnose crab that used sponge for camouflage and ended up with a sea lemon nudi on its back.
I took two photos of this. One has the nudi in focus but for whatever reason I liked the giant barnacle shot better. The wall was covered in giant barnacles but the barnacles were also covered in blue sponge. The whole wall was blue and white and something that a close up shot doesn't do justice to. Wish I had a wide angle lense.
Heart Crab
Leopard Dorid
Longfin Sculpin: Also a good example of the yellow sponge that covers many walls. Lot's of color on this dive.
Orange Peel Nudibranch
Puget Sound King Crab: I touched this one on the leg after the shot. It didn't care. I don't think they have many preditors.
Quillback Rockfish: Another good example of color. This site was covered with these red strawberry anemones.
I thought this was just a small sculpin but realized after looking at the photo that it was a juvenille Red Irish Lord.
They are so conviced you can't see them that they won't move if you get close. Great for macro photos.
This is another shot of the Red Irish Lord. It took me a while to lean to ID this fish. If you look closely you will see 4 rows of larger scales below the dorsal fin. If there are more than 4-5 rows it is a Brown Irish Lord.
Sailfin Sculpin
Scaleyhead Sclupin: This fish reminded me a of a small dog that just doesn't understand it isn't tough. He would swim up to me and give me the face as if to say back off....my territory. LOL
Scaley Lithodid Crab: Including legs this guy was about a foot across.
Shaprnose Crab: You might miss the female if your aren't looking closely.
Wolf Eel: This guy was found at 95ft on our third dive. Both times I have found this den I only had a few minutes of bottom time left. He was HUGE. His head was about the size of a soccer ball and I would guess he would be about 8ft long if he had come out of his den. Doing a close up shot like this at 95ft it's import to remind yourself that they are not very aggressive.
This one had me thinking it was a hermit sponge that takes over for the shell of a hermit crab to escape nudibranchs. If it is, the plan backfired. On second look I am now thinking it is a sharpnose crab that used sponge for camouflage and ended up with a sea lemon nudi on its back.
I took two photos of this. One has the nudi in focus but for whatever reason I liked the giant barnacle shot better. The wall was covered in giant barnacles but the barnacles were also covered in blue sponge. The whole wall was blue and white and something that a close up shot doesn't do justice to. Wish I had a wide angle lense.
Heart Crab
Leopard Dorid
Longfin Sculpin: Also a good example of the yellow sponge that covers many walls. Lot's of color on this dive.
Orange Peel Nudibranch
Puget Sound King Crab: I touched this one on the leg after the shot. It didn't care. I don't think they have many preditors.
Quillback Rockfish: Another good example of color. This site was covered with these red strawberry anemones.
I thought this was just a small sculpin but realized after looking at the photo that it was a juvenille Red Irish Lord.
They are so conviced you can't see them that they won't move if you get close. Great for macro photos.
This is another shot of the Red Irish Lord. It took me a while to lean to ID this fish. If you look closely you will see 4 rows of larger scales below the dorsal fin. If there are more than 4-5 rows it is a Brown Irish Lord.
Sailfin Sculpin
Scaleyhead Sclupin: This fish reminded me a of a small dog that just doesn't understand it isn't tough. He would swim up to me and give me the face as if to say back off....my territory. LOL
Scaley Lithodid Crab: Including legs this guy was about a foot across.
Shaprnose Crab: You might miss the female if your aren't looking closely.
Wolf Eel: This guy was found at 95ft on our third dive. Both times I have found this den I only had a few minutes of bottom time left. He was HUGE. His head was about the size of a soccer ball and I would guess he would be about 8ft long if he had come out of his den. Doing a close up shot like this at 95ft it's import to remind yourself that they are not very aggressive.
