Friends across the pond
Obviously the internet is essential to trip planning these days, but not just for research: the Northwest Dive Club forum( nwdiveclub. com) also supplied us with some new buddies. Eric Askilsrud, who runs PNW Diving( pnwdiving. com) drove over from Seattle to join us at Sund Rock, then took us to Days Island near Tacoma for a night dive. As a strongly tidal site with just one possible exit point, this would have been difficult and dangerous to attempt on our own. With Eric’ s advice, we swam out to a sheer vertical cliff of scoured rock, shelved and deeply pitted by burrowing bivalves( Zirfaea). Again, it was completely different underwater scenery, plus the excitement of seeing a second octopus species, the mostlynocturnal red octopus.
Yet another change of scene awaited us on our final day, when we drove to Alki Beach to join the PNW Saturday dive. This was a sandy shallow seagrass bed, with orange sea pens, diamond-backed Tritonia and Armina nudibranchs, shoals of tubesnouts and best of all, a sighting of a chimera( Hydrolagus colliei, also known as the spotted ratfish). This evolutionary oddity is thought to be a‘ missing link’ between cartilaginous and bony fish; I had heard of but never seen one and was thrilled as well as touched by its eerie beauty. On the other side of the headland, Alki Cove was the most urban of the dive sites( watch out for the ferry lane!) and offered views of Seattle across the water, as well as more nudibranchs – and one last octopus to bid us farewell.
Lingcod lie in wait to ambush prey at night
Rock fish are common on most dives
Giant Pacific octopus – colour and texture change in seconds
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