Diving Near Our House

This first picture isn't even remotely near our house, it has nothing to do with diving, and the water temperature is about 30 degrees warmer than the frigid waters of the Puget Sound, but it sure is fun! This is me and a new friend at an "environmental park" near Tulum, Mexico.

One of our favorite things to do is diving. Seth is a dive medicine expert (from the Neurology side), and I have been interested in the field for many years. The physiology is really interesting. We are both dive master, full cave, and mixed gas certified. We live very close to one of the best dive sites in the Northwest. Seth loves to take still pictures, and I prefer to shoot video.

The underwater world is enchanting. Whether I am diving the colorful, warm, shallow reefs of the Caribbean; the cold, deep, dark emerald waters of the Puget Sound; or the pitch black, crystal clear cenotes (caves) in the Yucatan Peninsula that predate ancient Mayan civilization, I never cease to be amazed by what I see and I never fail to see something new. The diversity of life is astounding and it is an absolute pleasure to glide weightlessly through and above the landscapes, like a bird on a thermal. The landscapes range from scenes that look like the canyon lands of Arizona, to the cliffs of Yosemite, to the grasslands of Iowa, to a dense forest, to the most amazingly decorated caves in the world, sporting thousands of stalagmites and stalactites. Then again, sometimes it just looks like a big mud pie with visibility so poor that I cannot see my hand in front of my face and I need to rely on “instrument flying.”

The variety of life is equally diverse and changes with time of day and year. At one of my favorite dive sites, minutes from my house, I may see on a single dive several giant pacific octopi, 8 foot long wolf eels, white and orange plumose anemones, spiny and burrowing sea cucumbers, big ling cod, several species of shrimp, lion’s mane and moon jellies, three or four types of crab, sponges, sharks, rays, several types of sea stars, red Irish lords, seals, rat fish, sea pens, urchins, and several hundred other life forms. Each of these different critters has its characteristic behavior, which can be learned only through patient observation.

The pictures that follow are of the critters at Sunrise reef in the Colvos Passage of the Puget Sound. This first picture is of a Wolf Eel. Although it has the body of an eel, it is actually a fish. They can get about 8 feet long. They mostly eat urchins and are very shy and gentle. Some people call them ugly, but who wouldn't love a face like this?

I don't know why it is so funny to me, but I cannot help but to laugh whenever a swimming scallop goes by. It looks exactly like those chattering teeth things. There is an evolutionary reason for this. Most scallops are fixed to the reef and have a lot of predators. These things have a way to sense shadow, and when they do, they are able to squirt water through their shells and propell themselves quickly away from the danger. So when we pass over and use our lights, they are often activated. I love these guys...

This is a Rat Fish. Ratfish are named from the rat-like dentition (which is used to feed on crustaceans) and their thin, narrow tail. They are very curious and enjoy diving with you, but they don't get too close. They rely on their pectoral fins for locomotion.

This was a lucky find. We had about six dives in a row where we found a couple of baby Gigantic Pacific Octopus. There is a scallop next to the lowest tenacle in this picture. This one would fit in the palm of your hand. The full-sized one can be 18 feet, fully extended. They turn red when they are aggitated, and they turn white after they begin to die.

Octopuses begin their lives as eggs, tended by their mother. She lays her eggs inside a rocky den and may lay from 20,000 - 100,000 eggs over a period of several days. The female will tend the eggs, cleaning them and blowing water across them until they hatch, which may take from 150 days to seven or more months, depending on the water temperature. Upon hatching, newly emerged larvae immediately swim toward the surface and live as plankton for 28 to 90 days. If they survive, they settle to the bottom when they reach a weight of about 5 grams.

Octopuses grow quickly, and may reach 0.5 - 1 kg by one year, and 15 kg after 3 years. They eat mostly crabs and clams, and the juveniles can be found at depths from the intertidal to 200 m or deeper. However, many juveniles live in water less than 30 m deep.

The males die several months after mating. Mating may occur at depths from 20 - 100 m, and takes several hours. The females brood the eggs, at which time they stop feeding. Females die shortly after the eggs hatch.

In this picture, if you blow it up, you can see BOTH of the baby octos. One was upset with us and is red, and the other one is a lighter tan color. There is also a star fish near the mantle of the red baby octopus.

I LOVE DIVING.

This is the same wolf eel out of its den. You can see where it gets its name...