Tag Archive: Crab


Last Dive of the Year, at The Cut.

Filed Under: Whytecliff by Roko — Comments Off on Last Dive of the Year, at The Cut.
December 29, 2013
Puget Sound King Crab

A Small Puget Sound King Crab

After a thwarted dive at Britannia Beach in the morning, I made my way down to Whytecliff Park where Paul and Steve were waiting for me to join them on a dive.

We hopped into the cut for a nice dive. Although it was a bit chilly on the surface, it warmed up a bit once we got below the thermocline. The visibility was amazing by Vancouver standards, and I managed to spot a really good diverse number of critters. Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots I love this time out, but I got some good shots of the different critters I saw.

I’m begining to think my perceived decrease in good photos is being caused by getting too close to the subject. I used to zoom in somewhat, and take photos from futher back, casting smoother lighting with my single strong. I think by getting too close it’s making the lighting too sharp. A second strobe to even things out sure would be nice..

Grunt Sculpin

A Grunt Sculpin…

One of the critters was another Grunt Sculpin, which I managed to get some half-decent shots of. One of my favorite local species, and I always struggle to get decent photos. One of the reasons is that I usually see then on a bottom covered in shells, which is really hard to properly expose with the highly-reflective whites. They also don’t like to properly pose, always hopping about on the bottom when you get close…

Plenty of different crabs as well, as evidenced in the top photo, and all the photos in the gallery below.

Not too much else to say about this dive, it was a good way to end off the diving year. Now for a work-induced dry spell, and then back at it again!

The rest of the photos are below:

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A Furry Creek Dive to Kick Off December

Filed Under: Furry Creek by Roko — Comments Off on A Furry Creek Dive to Kick Off December
December 1, 2013
Sponge Residents

Many creatures find home in the deep sponges

Armed with a good tip for where to find a Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker, Josh and I drove out to Kelvin Grove for a dive. Unfortunately, the 4 “Visitor” spots were already taken. (The 10 stalls reserved for Lions Bay residents were all free, naturally. I maintain that all the locals I’ve met while diving there have been very friendly, and we respond by being courteous to the local residents. Unfortunately their town council wants to restrict non-resident access)

Hairy Spined Crab

A Hairy Spined Crab at 30m

Both armed with doubles, we first swam out towards the wall, checking out the larger anemones and sponges that live along that feature, maxing out at a nice 30 meters — I fell the narc while trying to manoeuvre into position for a shot of a Hairy Spined Crab — Back-kicking with a loose bootie, watching my depth gauge, keeping my buoyancy, and trying to line up for a upwards shot (since he was hiding somewhat) proved to be an interesting level of task-loading today. After snapping a few shots, we ascended to a shallower depth. A cool thing about the Sponges is just how much life lives in and around the sponge themselves, usually various crustaceans.

Sculpin

A really cool Sculpin who posed nicely for me

After the wall, we swam back into the rock field, the spot I prefer at Furry Creek. At about 10-15 meters average depth are plenty of boulders, providing ample shelter for many different species of fish and other creatures. Again, there were plenty of Irish Lords guarding egg masses, as well as a really interestingly coloured and patterned Sculpin. Also in the area is the bottle-field, which has lots of interesting old bottles — No cool finds this time around.

One cool find was what I initially thought was  some sort of Tunicate, but I couldn’t match it up in my book. However, it looks pretty spot on for Stubby Squid eggs! Looking up some more references, I’m fairly confident that’s what they are. I can’t wait to get back in after they hatch to try and find some baby squid, in less than 4-9 months… (Quite the long gestation)

English Sole

A rather large English Sole

We spent a large portion of the dive in the super-shallows — Where lots of overlooked little creatures tend to hide out. Although it was ridiculously cold, we ended up with a 110 minute dive time, a new personal record for both of us. The drive home treated us with some sun and nice skies, Howe Sound truly is an amazing place, we’re lucky to live here.

The full gallery is below. Again, a lot of photos here this time around. I struggled to narrow down to 4 highlight photos…

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Return to Furry Creek

Filed Under: Furry Creek by Roko — 1 Comment
November 17, 2013
Crimson Anemone

A Crimson Anemone. Note the translucent tentacles with green tips.

30-Nov-13: I’ve improved upon the colours in some of these photos after messing around with the RAW files, and added some new ones. More info below.*

Armed with brand new batteries in my strobe, we hooked up to Furry Creek for a couple of dives. I haven’t dove Furry Creek in over a year, but it was nice to get back to one of my local favourite spots. Thankfully, we were treated with perfect surface conditions, a high slack tide and amazing visibility (for Vancouver, at least).

Having proper batteries in my strobe helped a lot, and I took a lot of photos, many of which were interesting subjects and some that turned out very nicely. Of particular treat was a juvenile GPO which I spotted popping it’s head out from it’s den. Even tucked away in his den, it made an amazing photo subject that was slowly started inching out towards us. A special thanks goes to my dive buddies, putting up with me obsessing over getting photos of this guy!

Octopus

A little octopus.

Other treats were some really interesting Crimson Anemones, with a light pinkish hue and green-tipped tentacles. I got in close for a couple photos, which turned out amazingly well – A lot of details on these anemones.

In the rocky area in the cove were plenty of large sculpins, including a Buffalo Sculpin guarding an egg mass. I struggle at identifying sculpins, as they all look the same to me, but I took a shot at trying to identify some of the different ones I saw.

Interestingly, there were a couple of piles of starfish goo. I also found a few starfish arms scattered around, but I’m unsure if they were related to the starfish wasting syndrome, or a starfish that fell victim to another animal.

Red Irish Lord and Egg Mass

Red Irish Lord guarding an egg mass.

I think I’ve set a record for myself, with 37 photos I considered bloggable. Although many of the photos aren’t the best in terms of focus, composition, exposure, etc, I thought they all showed interesting subjects that I wanted to remember down the road.

*30-Nov-13: After messing around with RAW files in Darktable for the past little while, I’ve come to thoroughly appreciate the in-camera JPEG processing that my camera does. For the most part, I’ve been having trouble getting the RAW photos looking as nice as the JPEGs, especially with the rich reds that Canon cameras add — Very noticeable with the dull colours and lack of contras. 

I’m sure there’s a way to replicate the in-camera processing in Darktable, but I haven’t cracked that nut yet. For the most part, I’ve decided to switch back to just touching up the JPEGs for most of my photos, unless they need more correction than the JPEG files will allows. Interestingly, JPEGs allow a lot of flexibility for decently exposed shots.  I’ve gone ahead and tweaked the JPEGs from this dive, and replaced some of the more interesting pictures I’d previously posted. 

Without further adoo, the rest of the photos are below.

 

 

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Stepping into Doubles at Whytecliff

Filed Under: Whytecliff by Roko — Comments Off on Stepping into Doubles at Whytecliff
September 15, 2013
Hermit Crab

A brave Hermit Crab who didn’t hide when I came in close for a great photo

Cold water diving necessitates thick insulation, which in turn requires a lot of weight to sink. With a steel tank, 5kg steel backplate and another 6kg of lead, I decided I needed more weight on my back, so I switched to doubles. Luckily the rigging for doubles is heavy enough to allow losing some of the lead ballast, but the entire rig is still rather heavy on the surface.

In the water, the doubles were a dream — They trimmed out well, and I didn’t have to fight them. After a sloppy valve drill (need to work on that) I felt comfortable enough to carry on with the dive and start taking photos.

The next step is to polish my skills and upgrade to a Fundies Tech pass…

Painted Greenling

A Painted Greenling posing nicely. Ironically, they’re not green.

Just one long dive today, starting in the bay then heading out to the plumose gardens. There was a touch of current out in the gardens due to the large interchange, but it was a good dive regardless. Plenty of rockfish, squat lobsters, hermit crabs, nudibranchs of various types and the other usual suspects. I managed to snap some photos I’m happy with today.

We found a cool glass sponge at about 22 meters as well. One thing I love about glass sponges is that it provides hiding places for so many small critters, and it’s a lot of fun to peek into all the nooks and crannies to  see what you’ll find.

The Starfish die-off was still very evident today, and I’ve documented that in a separate post.

Residents of the Glass Sponge

A Hermit Crab and a Shrimp sharing a crevice in the Glass Sponge

After we had thumbed the dive, on the ascent I found a Grunt Sculpin peaking out from a giant barnacle, the perfect photo opportunity. Unfortunately a thumbed dive is a thumbed dive, and with my camera stowed I couldn’t get a photo. It looked like there was a lot of interesting things in that area (near the rocks by the day marker) so I’ll have to go back sometime and look for photo opportunities.

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First Visit to the Nakaya

Filed Under: Porteau Cove by Roko — Comments Off on First Visit to the Nakaya
September 1, 2013
Nakaya

An interesting item on the wreck of the Nakaya

Somehow, having been in Vancouver for three and a half years, I’ve managed to never dive the Nakaya at Porteau Cove. I think the lengthy surface swim has something to do with it.

Disregarding my intense dislike for long, if any, surface swims, we made our way out to the Nakaya to start off a dive. After a quick search, she rose out of the darkness and there we were.

My first impression of the Nakaya was that it looks like a real wreck — It has definitely been down for a while. Very cool, though, and I’m anxious to visit it again. I think it will be a great place to take wreck photos in the winter when the viz clears up. In the meantime I have some miscellaneous photos of the unidentifiable mess.

Unidentified

An unidentified fish. Very well camouflaged.

The usual suspects were at Porteau, so and I snapped some photos of them too. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the camouflage displayed by the various critters out on the west coast. While warm water reefs are known for flashy coloured fish (Although they have their own well-hidden residents), a lot of the animals here rely on camouflage to stay hidden from predators. The photo on the right is a fantastic example. I think I’ll have to work on lighting techniques with the strobe to try and cast more of a shadow on these guys to bring them out a lot better.

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Forgotten Photos from Britannia, May 2012

Filed Under: Britannia Beach by Roko — Comments Off on Forgotten Photos from Britannia, May 2012
August 16, 2013
A Crab

A little crab hiding in a pipe

Getting my camera ready for some diving tomorrow, and flipping through photos to delete to clear up some space on my SD card, I was shocked to find some photos I didn’t remember processing. Double-checking my log book and this blog, I realized they were photos from Britannia Beach from quite a while ago, May 20th 2012 to be exact.

I’m not sure why I never got around to editing and uploading these photos. Not too many great ones, but the photos on the left is pretty memorable. I remember (from reviewing all the shots that didn’t turn out!) how awkward it was to try to light him up properly for a good shot.

Jelly

Comb Jelly

The photo of the funny looking Jellyfish on the right turned out quite well, however doesn’t truly reflect how amazing these little creatures are. They white lines are on their body are actually rows of scilia that give off an interesting iridescent effect if you pay close attention. It also reminds me of something out of Star Trek…. The ocean is full of interesting creatures.

 

As usual, more photos below.

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Pea Soup at Porteau Cove, 2013 Edition.

Filed Under: Porteau Cove by Roko — Comments Off on Pea Soup at Porteau Cove, 2013 Edition.
August 3, 2013
Big George

Big George

This August long weekend I found myself at Porteau cove again, much like last year. (Here’s hoping that this year it doesn’t start off a far too long dry-spell again). The tide was very low and the visibility wasn’t the best with plenty of turbidity and sediment in the water, but I it was a fun dive nonetheless.

I didn’t get any especially great photos this time around as I wasn’t quite in the photo-zone. But, such is the life of an amateur under-water camera type person. (I refuse to call myself a photographer, hah!). Sometimes you get some fantastic photos, sometimes you don’t. All the more reason to do some more diving and try for some great shots next time.

Shrimp

Shrimp in his Little Shrimp Cave.

Interestingly, while doing an S-drill I managed to clip off my camera leash around can-light cord, causing some issues with deploying my long hose. There is no standard GUE/DIR way to clip off a camera, and I’ve evolved my current setup over several iterations. I have two bolt snaps on my camera. One tied right to the tray so that I can clip the camera off close to me when not in use, and another attached to a short bungee leash so the camera is always secured to me, allowing me to easily drop it in an emergency). One of the many great reasons why doing regular S-drills is a good idea, as it helps you catch kinks. In this case, it’s a great reminder to pay attention when I’m clipping off my camera to ensure I don’t trap my can light cord.

The dive itself was fun as always. The low clouds against the mountains are always amazing to see while swimming out over calm water. Shore diving on the West Coast truly is amazing.

Full gallery is below.

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Porteau Cove in the Heat of the August Long Weekend

Filed Under: Porteau Cove by Roko — Comments Off on Porteau Cove in the Heat of the August Long Weekend
August 5, 2012
coolunkfish

This tiny guy posed nicely for a shot. I’m really happy with how it turned out!

I haven’t posted in quite a while, due to a combination of dives where I didn’t take any decent photos, long business trips, and not being able to find my camera. Luckily, I found my camera the other day just in time for a couple of dives at Porteau cove on one of the hottest days of the year! My drysuit flooded severely, but luckily it was warm enough that my insulation kept me warm enough to manage a couple of good one hour dives.

In spite of not having had my camera in the water for a while, I managed to get some decent shots. I’ve posted quite a few today, as I liked how a lot of them turned out, if not for the technical photographic qualities of the photos, but rather more for the subject matter of the photos. There is so much life hidden in the waters here, that’s very easy to overlook if you’re not looking hard.

Hidden Octopus

This guy was too well hidden to light up properly for a good photo, but Octopus photos are fun nonetheless!

Some of the highlights from these dives were a couple of Octopuses, however they were well hidden so I couldn’t get any good photos of them. Another spot in Porteau had hundreds of Opalescent Nudibranch in a small area, which was amazing. I spent some time hovering just above the bottom trying to take some close up photos of the better-posed ones. This proved quite a challenge, as I had to maintain perfect buoyancy and trim so as to not touch the bottom and accidentally crush any of them, since they were literally everywhere.

There were also decorator crabs all around the reef structures, including plenty of very small, potentially juvenile longhorn and graceful decorators. Graceful decorators are very hard to spot, as often they blend in perfectly with the bottom, so you have to be very adept at noticing subtle movements and the blob-like shape they make. Taking photographs of them is also very difficult, due to how well they blend in to the background. Setting up the strobe to get a good shadow on the crab, and striving for a black or contrasting background appears the key to get them to be noticeable in a photo, but is very difficult to accomplish.

Lingcod

A Lingcod who wasn’t photo-shy

As usual, lingcod were sitting everywhere, including some massive ones. I tried snapping some photos of them and have included them below. They’re somewhat skittish, so it’s difficult to adjust a strobe from close to the camera (for macro photos) to far out (to reduce backscatter when photographing larger subjects) without spooking them. There’s not much in the local shallow waters that’s bigger than a lingcod, so a large, awkward, loud, bubbly scuba diver must be somewhat concerning to them.

Another highlight was the large schools of different kinds of fish above some of the shallower reefs. Some of these fish are amazingly colourful. One day hopefully I’ll have powerful enough dual strobes and a wide angle lens to actually manage a decent photo of them! (Dreaming of a DSLR camera)

Anyways, without rambling on too much more, the rest of my photos are below! I’m off to try and find the massive leak in my drysuit….

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Pea Soup at Porteau Cove

Filed Under: Porteau Cove by Roko — Comments Off on Pea Soup at Porteau Cove
April 15, 2012
Longhorn Decorator Crab

A Longhorn Decorator Crab, posing nicely on a retracted plumose anemone.

Perhaps “Pea Soup” is a bit of an extreme description of the visibility at Porteau today, as I’ve seen worse in some deep mountain lakes, but after a long surface swim Josh and I dropped down on the Granthal to enjoy a nice dive with only 5-10 feet of visibility with plenty of particulates in the water. (This cleared up to a solid 10 feet of visibility below 50 feet or so.) It looks like the spring algae bloom has arrived.

Regardless of the visibility, we had a couple of great dives, with plenty of things to see. Some of the highlights included a huge number of decorator crabs, both Longhorn and Graceful. Plenty of nudibranch and other critters made appearances, including many Lingcod (some guarding egg masses). It never ceases to amaze me just how much life you can spot in the “muck” if you slow down and look carefully. Even on days with poor visibility, there is a lot to see.

Opalescent Nudibranch

An Opalescent Nudibranch. There were several of these out and about, including some very tiny ones.

Due to the large amount of particulates in the water, I struggled with backscatter on any of the larger subjects (such as the Lingcod) or subjects where I tried to get black background. (In retrospect I should have adjusted the aperture to blur the background and try to hide the backscatter). I think the photos turned out pretty well. Try to spot the individual limbs on the very well camouflaged Graceful Decorators!

It’s been a great month for diving so far, hopefully I can squeeze in yet another couple of dive days before the month’s end….

See all the photos below:

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Easter Sunday dive at Britannia Beach

Filed Under: Britannia Beach by Roko — Comments Off on Easter Sunday dive at Britannia Beach
April 8, 2012
Squat Lobster

Squat Lobster!

Grunt Sculpin

A Grunt Sculpin. Usually these guys live in barnacle shells, but this guy was hiding under the wreck.

A Fish

I like the focus on this shot.

Britannia Beach is currently one of my favorite dive sites, as the wrecks harbour an amazing amount of life in a concentration that I haven’t seen elsewhere locally yet. (Although I suspect Porteau should be similar now that I’m getting better at spotting critters.)

With all the nooks and crannies, the site is home to various types of crabs, including several types of decorators, squat lobsters, varius sculpins, shrimp and much much more. The best part is that the dive is relatively shallow, so I can manage long dives on a single tank. The first dive we stayed down for 60 minutes, the second was somewhat shorter.

I took the opportunity on this dive to experiment with aperture settings on my camera primarily to get different focus effects, but some other results came out of this, notably green backgrounds. Even with the small range of apertures available on my Powershot G10, going from small to large meant the difference of black backgrounds to green backgrounds, and a large change in depth-of-field.

Several treats for me popped up on this dive. First, I found a squat lobster which posed nicely for me. Next, while searching under the hull of the Ready, a colourful rock moved and caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, it was a Grunt Sculpin, the first I’ve seen. Unfortunatley it was a couple of feet away under the hull, so I had to put my single strobe out to the side to try and fit the camera under the hull and avoid back-scatter from the silty water. I managed to get some good shots as he hopped around the bottom. Afterwards, Paul found a Buffalo Sculpin which posed very nicely as I took many a photo, adjusting camera settings each time.

There were also several Lincod faithfully guarding egg masses around the wreck. I gave them all a wide-berth to not agitate them and give them reason to chase me away….

I also came across a couple of male Tanner Crabs fighting over a female Tanner Crab for mating rights. I took a video of the end of the fight: (The video is a bit green from the water, I didn’t set up the white-balance before taking the video, since I was in still-photography mode..)



This was one of my best dive days in a long time. I really enjoy the diversity of life at this site, and seeing new and cool animals is always a highlight of a dive!

See the rest of the photos below:

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