Puget Sound Diving - Sunrise and Saltwater

[tiggymalvern]

The last weekend in March was absolutely glorious, and I got in a day of boat diving with Sea Ya charters. We set off early, and as we left the marina, it was gorgeous but chilly!


The sea was glassy, and Mount Rainier towers over the region.


The views were equally good under the water, because the visibility was around 35 feet, which for Puget Sound is sensational. (Typical would sadly be 10-15 feet.)

The highlight of the Sunrise Beach wall was an out-and-about octopus (I'm fairly sure this was a large red octopus and not a small GPO - I only see bumps on its skin, not folds). Saltwater State Park provided the usual rockfish and some enormous lingcod. Also several Lewis's moonsnails - it's always fun to see those. A foot long underwater snail that wraps itself around its shell and keeps it on the inside? Who wouldn't have fun watching those?

"Sunrise Beach and Saltwater State Park" (Watch on YouTube)

It's taken longer than usual to get the video up because I spent most of last week in Austin, Texas for a work conference. Photos of that trip coming soon! (I even managed to get 3500 words of my Big Bang fic written while I was in Austin between work and touristing, so I figure that was good going.)

Comments

[jo_lasalle]

Your diving videos are so impressive! The octopus!! That must have been amazing.

[tiggymalvern]

Octopuses are amazing! I don't get to see them roaming around too often as opposed to sleeping in a hole, but that just makes it even cooler when they are active.

[anirrationalseason]

Amazing underwater views! The octopus was the star, but all the creatures were impressive (and beautifully shot).

And Rainier is so cool. It's funny, we were just in Seattle the first weekend of April and we could see it from the marketfront -- made my husband's day.

[tiggymalvern]

There are so many pretty and fascinating things underwater. I love them!

When the weather's good, you can see Rainier from half the state. When it's cloudy, of course, you can't see it from anywhere except a plane! It's funny, you really only get an idea of how big Rainier is when you see how much of it sticks up ABOVE all the clouds.

[tameiki]

What was that at 4:04? It looks like something with a dead fish in its... mouth?

I watched this in HD, it really makes a difference in what shows up. Although the octopus steals the show, I was also a little sidetracked by all the uni (sea urchins). Mmmm... sushi. XD

[tiggymalvern]

The weird creature is the Lewis's moonsnail. It's the massive snail that wraps its body around the outside of its shell and ends up just looking like a grey blob with horns. Weird but very cool :-)

http://www.boydski.com/diving/photos/other/Moonsnail/lewis_moon_snail.htm

[tameiki]

So that's what you were talking about in your post! Okay, but am I seeing something that's not there? It really looks like a fish head sticking out of the "mouth" looking slit. I can see an eye... 0_0

[tiggymalvern]

I think you're seeing things XD A moonsnail doesn't have a visible mouth (the part with teeth where they drill through oyster shells is underneath), so I'm not quite sure what you're looking at. They don't eat fish, only molluscs.

[tameiki]

Okay. But I'm not convinced. XDDDD

[pat_t]

Gorgeous pictures.

[tiggymalvern]

Thank you! It was the kind of morning when being up that early wasn't so bad!