BACK TO THE BEAN

Even more slugs and things. Very low tide Thursday morning, so I went looking for my spineless friends. No long story, so here are the pics (I had a lot of trouble getting the auto-focus to behave for some reason, so I’m afraid they’re blurrier than usual):

Tritonia festiva

Tritonia festiva, again. Besides the opalescent nudibranchs, these were actually the most common guys out there, despite the fact that I saw none the last time. Bizarre.

white nudibranch (Dendronotus alba). Actually, this might be D. diversicolor, it’s hard to tell.

white nudibranch (Dendronotus alba), white morph. The larger, all-white one might also be D. diversicolor, and I’m fairly sure it was trying to eat the smaller one.

Dendronotus subramosus. I realize it doesn’t look anything like the photos on the Sea Slug Forum, but it looks exactly like the photo in my guide, Behrens 1991.

I’m not sure about this one, but it looks a lot like an un-spotted morph of the spotted triopha, Triopha maculata. However, it seems kind of weird that I would find two freaky unspotted morphs in the same pool. It’s also possible that they just had spots that were too small for me to see with my naked eyes. Don’t know why I didn’t whip out my hand lens. D’oh! Addendum: further ID notes may pop up on this forum thread I started.

Cryptic kelp crab (Pugettia richii). It had all the distinguishing features, including the white-tipped claws and spiny carapace. Note the sea weed stuck to its face. It actually attaches it there for camouflage!

Weird little fish I found by running my dip net through the sea weed along the side of a pool. It’s color provided perfect camouflage, as did it’s frayed fins, so I don’t think I would ever have just seen it. However, I haven’t been able to find a decent ID source online. This might require a trip to the library.

Ok, one story: while I’m wading through a pool at 7 am, this guy emerges over a rock above me and says, “Hi.”

“Hey,” I reply, and continue going about my business.

“Uh, Fish and Game,” he says, revealing a badge underneath his jacket.

“Oh,” I say. He proceeded to ask me what I was doing, if I was collecting, if I had a scientific collextion permit, and would I mind if he searched my bag, to which I replied having some fun, no, no, and not at all. I showed him my bag wasn’t full of abalone or clams or anything, and explained that I did take animals out of the pools and place them in jars, but only to photograph them. He thought that was just fine, so long as I didn’t move the animals away from the side of the pool and released them immediately. He said that he’d been watching me since I arrive an hour earlier, and was somewhat unsettled by my pattern of behavior, which involved moving from pool to pool, progressing up the coast. But, once he learned I was releasing everything, he told me to have a nice day, and left. After recovering from mild shell shock, I realized he was just about the most pleasant Fish and Game officer I could have hoped to run into. It’s actually nice to know they’re out there keeping an eye on things, and even nicer knowing they have no problem with recreational tidepooling. I’m happy my tax dollars pay that guy’s salary.