Blue "Bottle Brush" Puget Sound

[eponym]

Don't have a photo (no camera) but it was the weirdest thing . . .

Was diving March 13 2009, late afternoon, in Hood Canal at Octopus Hole.

Depth somewhere around 30 feet, bottom mostly sand and silt, some rock.

Came across something bright baby blue which was hovering vertically just off the bottom. At first I thought it was a piece of fishing gear because it was so bright and not moving. I moved my hand toward it and it floated up a bit. I shone my light on it and it reacted, turning and flexing. Then I knew it was alive. Saw that it was translucent, noticed what looked like a prominent dark eyespot on the "head" over a very long "tail." Overall length about 16 inches, 40 cm. I have made a rough sketch:

I motioned to my buddy, who watched it start to "swim" toward my light head (on my hand). It suddenly "swam" off, we did not pursure it. We are stumped. I'm thinking perhaps a juvenile form of some invert, maybe a jelly . . .

-Bryan

 

[eponym]

Well, I pulled out my big Invertebrates text (Brusca & Brusca) and found in phylum Cnidaria, class Hydrozoa, the order Siphonophora. Attached is a photo of a siphonophre that looks about right for what I saw.

Apparently these guys are a actually a colony of organisms (like coral, which is also phylum Cnidaira). Brusca & Brusca include the man-of-war in Siphonophora.

-Bryan

 

[TSandM]

Cool find!

I did a dive at Edmonds on Friday, where the things we saw in the water column were more fun than anything we saw on the sea floor or the structures. Sometimes I feel as though I just don't pay enough attention to the water -- there are a lot of neat things floating there!