Diario de leftcoaster

Diving with folks from the Côté Lab at SFU Biology (including @emlim) to collect sea cucumber samples after wasting swept through. We spotted a school of anchovies - beautiful in the sunlight. We looked at the cuke devastation and samples were collected. A few mottled stars and a vermilion showing wasting too. My buddy found a nice big GPO in a den under a rock on the first sand flat. There were some big fried egg jellies out. Oregon triton and vermilion stars eating dead sea cucumbers.

Once at the wall, the ususal suspects: Vermillion rockfish, school of yellowtail rockfish, tiger rockfish, juvenile yelloweye rockfish. The wolf eel pair was home.

Coming up we watched the anchovies again. Second dive started at the wolf eel pair den and went right. I found a Cockrell's Dorid.

Finally got Radio Flyer back after a summer stuck in the boat yard for repairs, so J and I took it for a rip around. Winds weren't good, so we had to stick to the channel. Thus, a trip to Warbonnet City. Sure enough, loads of warbonnets (mostly decorated, but one mosshead). Grunt sculpin. Pacific Batwing Seaslug on our safety stop, along with a school of Striped Surfperch munching on stuff on the line.

Raced through the last proof-read of my last comprehensive exam (!!!) and went diving. Cottam Point dives are rare due to tides and stairs, so I wasn't going to miss this one. Glad I didn't, because there was a GPO WITH EGGS!!! (only the 3rd I've seen in 507 dives). Also the most massive Giant Pink Star I've ever seen. And a 6-ray and a 7-ray leather star.

I saw a lot of Pacific Blood Stars with pink ray pits - obviously a genetic thing in this population. I love the GPOs at Cottam, because they're really messy and the dens are obvious. We saw a couple. Juvenile PSKC. Lots of urchins with fun hats. 2 big cabezon, including one under a rock with a lingcod friend that charged at me when I got too close. I got a really good photo of a wee little painted greenling tucked among the orange zoanthids.

A few wasting sea cucumbers here and there, but nowhere near as many as Dolphin.

First real night dive of the year. A 4 yo girl was entranced by us gearing up in the parking lot, and made her family go back down to the beach to see us splash. It was adorable.

A little bit of SSWD and sea cuke wasting. The highlight for me was spotting a wee tiny little juvenile grunt sculpin that was so little it didn't even have its adult colours in yet! I found leather stars with 5, 6, and 7 rays. J spotted a baby red octopus. Lots of small sailfin sculpins, and a couple of Red Irish Lords.