We went on a night dive at Whytecliff in early January. The fact that it was the dead of “winter” meant that we didn’t have to get into the water super-late, either. Much unlike Alberta where we’d get into the water after 10pm in the summer so that it would be dark enough.
Near the end of our dive, returning into the shallows we did see a lot of strange.. Things.. swimming about in a very peculiar fashion. I didn’t manage to get any good photos of them, but did manage to get a video showing their unique, rippling swimming motion:
At first paranoia set in, and I thought they were carnivorous earwigs of some sort attempting to swim into my ear and eat my brains. They were very interested in us, but in retrospect they may have just been attracted to my 10 watt HID. It’s a very nice dive light, I know.
After some sleuthing, Steffy figured that they were some sort of polychaete, which was confirmed by an e-mail to Andy Lamb, an expert in marine life of the PNW. Very funky creatures indeed!
I had my quasi-wide-angle lens on (Fantasea Bigeye), so I struggled a bit to try and get decent photos. I didn’t get too many, but I’ve uploaded a few of the good ones. Click below for the Gallery.
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