Monthly Archives: October 2014

Crabstravaganza 2014!

On Sunday, Matt and I successfully conducted our first crab hunt. I had been wanting to do this since we first arrived in Seattle, and was planning on a bountiful harvest of succulent Dungeness this summer, but unfortunately, fate had other plans. So when I found out that crab season had been extended until December 30 for certain marine zones in Washington, I was ecstatic. We decided to conduct our hunt at the Mukilteo T-dock, where I have seen throngs of Dungeness and red rock crabs during past dives.

Since Matt had not been out in open water for a while, we decided to warm up with a leisurely dive at Edmonds first. The visibility was still excellent, over 30 feet in some areas. Massive schools of shiner perch, pile perch, and tubesnout swirled around us. We also encountered a spotted ratfish, quillback rockfish, cabezon, and numerous massive lingcod. White-lined dirona nudibranchs covered the seafloor.

After a relaxing 50 minute dive, we filled up our tanks again and headed to Mukilteo. The visibility was excellent here as well, but we did encounter a bit of a current as we headed into deeper water. However, we did not need to go past 40 feet to harvest some decent-sized crab. Most of them were congregating under the dock, as expected, along with dozens of spotted ratfish. For an idea of what it was like, here’s a video of some freedivers rounding up Dungies near the oil dock, which is several hundred yards north of where we were diving. The crab population was not nearly as dense at the T-dock, but we still managed to get a good haul.

It took us about 50 minutes to round up 4 Dungeness and 4 red rock crabs of the appropriate size and gender. We tossed them in the cooler and headed home to feast on our bounty. Matt steamed them and served them with red potatoes, which was a simple but delicious meal. We had about a pound of meat leftover, which we plan on using for crab cakes. We will definitely be going back for more soon!

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Crabs in the cooler!

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Three of our delicious Dungies, steamed and served with red potatoes. Nice presentation by Matt!

Three Tree Point

Yesterday morning, I joined several other divers from the Marker Buoy Dive Club at Three Tree Point. Since the visibility in Puget Sound has been so good recently and life is still abundant, I decided that this would be a good time to try my hand at underwater photography. I used Matt’s Canon 5D with a wide angle lens.

I decided to do a preliminary run in the shallows just to get used to the new equipment. While I was there, I came across a bay pipefish (Syngnathus leptorhyncus), just hanging out on the bottom in about 6 feet of water. This was apparently a rare sighting – some of the other divers had not seen one in years.

Bay pipe

After getting comfortable with the camera, I exited the water and waited for my dive buddies to get ready. We descended in 6 feet of water, made sure all of our equipment was in order, and swam down the sandy slope.

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On the way down, I encountered several white-lined Dirona nudibranchs (Dirona albolineata), sculpins, mottled sea stars, and hermit crabs amongst the kelp. The sea stars were few and far between, but those we found showed no sign of the wasting disease that has devastated populations of numerous sea star species on the west coast over the past year. Joyce also spotted a tiny Pacific spiny lumpsucker resting on some kelp, but I didn’t have the right kind of lens to get a good photo of it.

Nudi

A white-lined dirona (Dirona albolineata).

Nudi and Crab

Sculpin

stars

We got down to about 80 feet and began to encounter some sunken structures, such as a small boat and a pile of tires. Life was abundant in and around these features. Numerous medium-sized rockfish were tucked into the nooks and crannies, accompanied by gunnels and painted greenlings. We located a small wolf eel hiding out in some pipes as well. Several spotted ratfish flapped around the perifery, and flatfish scooted about in the sand.

Rockfish

Wolf Eel

A baby wolf eel hides in a pipe.

Ratfish

A local holocephalan and my favorite Pacific northwest fish, the spotted ratfish (Hydrolagus colliei).

Boat

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After about 45 minutes, we gradually ascended up the slope and did our safety stop at 20′. At this point, the batteries in the strobes were beginning to fail, so I was unable to get many good pictures of the life in the shallows. I did manage to capture a decent image of a rock sole, however.

Rock Sole

It was a fun dive overall. I did get a bit cold, as my drysuit has a leaky exhaust valve on the left arm that I have yet to repair. My surface air consumption rate has gotten even better, coming out to 0.35 cfm. I lasted 55 minutes on a low pressure steel 72 tank, which is pretty good, if I do say so myself. I’m looking forward to doing more underwater photography in the future – hopefully I’ll learn the tricks of the trade and come out with some cooler pics in the coming months.