Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

Last Friday, Captain Jim, our naturalist Jackie and dive buddy Natasha Dickinson had hoped to be able to retreive some submerged sea lion bones for the Whale Interpretive Centre (WIC).  However, one of our great winter storms meant there was too much wave action to dive in and retrieve the bones.  When nature delivers a dead marine mammal, we want to be sure we can use if for educational purposes and therefore submerge the bones in the ocean so that they can be cleaned naturally.

The storm meant that the bone retrieval will have to wait but Jackie and Natasha grabbed the chance to dive in more sheltered waters, under the Telegraph Cove dock.  The photos show two of our marine neighbours living under the dock.  The sea star is the largest species in the world, the sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides).   It can be up to 1 metre across, have up to 26 arms and travel at speeds up to 2.5 km/hour.  It is a voracious predator!  Our divers reported that there were at least 20 under one small section of the dock.

The fish in the photograph on the right had Jackie and Natasha particularly excited.  It is a decorated warbonnet (Chirolophis decoratus) and has an eel-like body up to 40 + cm long.  The remarkable "decorations" on its head are cirri that may allow it to camouflage, attract prey and be an ambush hunter.

Jackie reported the ocean temperature was 42 degrees F (5.5 degrees C) - that would be the 'cold' part of cold-water diving.  Brrrr!!!