AquasereneDiver

Joel..no worries on the time and effort...we would be diving anyway and Karin likes to have things "to do" while she dives (I think it's a dive instructor thing...lol..always has to be doing something while diving). Although I have to admit, trying to aim a dive light, maneuver too big of a net, AND chase gunnells into said net while laying on a mud bottom brings new meaning to "task loading" underwater..lol. And I would have no problem coming in in gear to talk about diving. We're actually getting a new housing for the camera shortly, so I'd even be able to share photos of what it looks like while we're down there. Cheers, Austin

Joel...thanks again for letting me be a part of things. I can't wait to see what I can bring back from Newport next week. I've got some pics of stuff in the tank...I'll upload them to the PC tonight and post later. Oh...and when is everyone getting SCUBA certified? Cheers, Austin

JManrow...great point...this is about showing young people the diversity of their native species and giving them an appreciation for them. As far as asking the DM's at the local shops...well...I'm well on my way to becoming one of them. lol My girlfriend is an instructor at the only shop within 60 miles. We just don't have great dive collection sites around here without paying for a charter to get offshore to the reef zones. (Let me rephrase that...we do have some great sites..Florence and Newport are two of them...they just don't pack the biological diversity punch that Puget Sound or Monterey do...) As I said, we are going to be collecting in the Sound here shortly...it wouldn't surprise me if we can come back with 20 or 30 different species without even trying. I know exactly where I can grab Metridium giganteum and roughly a dozen other species within 10 minutes in the Sound. (We usually dive Alki Beach Cove 2/Seacrest Park in West Seattle...great dive site if you haven't tried it Steve, btw. It has pretty much any depth you'd like to reach at one site...from shallow kelp beds at 40' to a huge Metridium garden on submerged girders at about 100'...and if it's your thing and you're a tech diver..the site continues to drop off to 200 or 300' or so. ) Cheers, Austin

Steve, You'd be surprised at the differences in the undersea topography between WA and OR. The OR coast is one very large sandflat running to a reef line about 3/4 of a mile offshore pretty much everywhere. (The notable exception is far southern OR, in places like Port Orford...and if you can hook up a boat dive to about 1/4 mile offshore at Orford, reef165...count Karin and I IN!! ) There are also no really great upwellings like you find in WA (in the San Juans especially...great deepwater currents dragging up lots of nutrients). This gives us average visibility in the exceptionally poor range (at the Jetty yesterday, the vis was in the neighbourhood of 2'...the best I've ever seen visibility there was 10'). However...all that being said...we are headed for West Seattle in two weeks and Karin and I are more than willing to collect. Are the collection laws in WA similar to those in OR, Steve? (I did note there are a lot more protected zones from the WA DFW website, but none where we'd be diving...with the exception of Edmonds UP.) And Steve...what coolers are you using that sink? lol I was thinking about dropping the coolers and using lift bags to bring them back up...but none of our coolers are negative enough to drop... As far as the substrate issue goes...the cockles only need a few inches..they bury themselves fairly shallow..only have short syphons. Now if you were going to try any of the larger gapers or geoducks..lol...that's a different story. Oh..and one other addendum for you, Joel. I'm going to have to head in for 8:30 tomorrow, not 9:45...they need me in at 10 at the store instead of 12...blah. (and here I was thinking I was going to get more sleep... ) Cheers, Austin

Where's all the cool stuff? We don't have it in Oregon.... The only "local" kelp forests are down in Port Orford and they require either a charter or the proper alignment of stars to reach them from shore without killing yourself. Newport has some kelp beds, so hopefully we'll be able to collect some better specimens there. We're also going to check the Washington collection laws to see if we can collect when we're up there in the beginning of March. The Puget Sound has far more diversity than the Oregon coast. The last dives we made up there we saw several species of rockfish, more varied species of sculpin, several shrimp species, kelp crab/Puget Sound King crab, anemones (several, including Giant Plumose (Metridium sp.)), several kelp species, chimaera, etc., etc. (too many things to note..."a lot" would be appropriate..including litte red octopus). However, I also don't know if Joel wants to mix species or make it an "Oregon only" tank. If so, we can also attempt to collect from the Depoe Bay tidepools (purple urchins there a lot, plus more sea stars). There is a lot still up in the air...but for now, we do have some specimens for the tank. (And Buffalo Sculpin can certainly be colorful...I've seen adults in the Jetty that have red/pink speckles on their giant heads...) Cheers, Austin

Here's the pic of the mussel/barnacle...bad I know..but it's dark out!! Cheers, Austin Quick update: While typing this post, Karin suddenly remembered she also was able to grab a pair of limpets and several other hermits...which were quietly whiling away the time in her BCD pocket. (whistle) DOH! . LOL They're still alive...(god bless intertidal species) some 5+ hours after getting out of the water. (also god bless the fact that Karin doesn't take care of her dive gear...no freshwater rinse for them either...) So they've been added to the holding facility (read: cooler), where I'll keep an eye on them to make sure they don't expire due to their extended stay out of the water.

Okay...the pictures! lol First...the total haul: 1 Buffalo Sculpin Several hermit crabs (as yet undetermined species) Several snails (as yet undetermined species) 3 Heart (Nuttall's) Cockles 1 Blue Mussel 1 Acorn Barnacle 1 Purple Shore Crab Then the pictures...the first couple are of me in dive gear (thanks to Karin!). I know..boring and all..but Reef165 should know what he's getting himself into before he gets certed... (clap) The rest are of the livestock...a couple of the lil Sculpin (which was the "consolation" prize due to my ineptitude (or the lack of a properly sized net!! lol) to catch several little gunnells hiding under a large boulder...after spending four or five minutes trying to manipulate a dive light, large net, and several uncooperative tiny fish while lying pressed into the mud bottom, I gave up and turned around to find that little guy staring back at me with his big beautiful eyes... (laugh) ). According to my dive computer, he was caught at about 39' in a currently brisk 48 degree ocean. The same with the various snails and hermits. The mussel/barnacle was harvested (pick of said mollusc in next post...hit my five pic limit for this one) in about 20' of water...same temp (brrrr). The shore crab was all Karin...right near our exit point..in about 4' of water (she beat me to one...I had one cornered and was tossing detritus everywhere trying to dig it out, but it eluded me...along with another, larger sculpin of indeterminate species...ahh..the one that got away, eh? ) Everybody looks comfy for now...they're being hand-delivered to Joel at around 9:45 Friday morning. Any questions anyone has...please let us know! Thanks again for letting me help on this...I love it. Gives us yet another excuse to get in the water...and next week we're off to Newport for another collecting trip!! (rock2) Cheers, Austin

Hi, this is Karin posting under Austin's username. (I am his live-in dive buddy/instructor/additional hand at catching neat stuff, you know...) For the questions regarding collection, here is some info specifically the Oregon coast. Law states that collection of snails, shore crabs, seastars and any other non-listed species (including hermit crabs,) must be limited to 10 total per day. Collection of shellfish, including heart cockles, needs a license ($6.50 for a year pass for an Oregon resident,) and is limited to 12. Crab must be male, 5 3/4 inches and you need to measure them before coming out of the water. I couldn't find anything specific about marine sculpin, my assumption here, (though I plan on calling about it tomorrow,) is that it falls under the "other" category, or simply isn't an issue for game and wildlife to worry about. Oregon does not have any coastline that is specifically off-limits for collection... it seems our preservation lies further off the coast. Washington is different, and has many more places from which you simply cannot collect (being marine reserves or sanctuaries). If you plan on taking any fish, you need to make sure that you are following the angler's license rules as well as size requirements, which are specific to the species. Be careful also about how you transport the creatures. You can't have "mutilated" an animal before putting it in a car- which means crabs must stay whole and measurable, while with fish scales must stay on as well in order to determine type and size. Curiously, you cannot dispose of unwanted parts at the site... (what? when a creature dies in the ocean it puts itself in a garbage can?)... but I guess I can understand this simply because of the amount of waste a fisherperson may actually produce. Anyway- let me let Austin back on... he has pictures to share of our trip today... (which was actually quite eventful, being 3 foot visibility with a light and a bit of a current sweeping through...) Thanks for letting me be a part of this- I look forward to meeting you, Joel! -Karin

Joel et al., First off, yes, I will NOT be collecting from a marine garden or sanctuary zone. My collection sites (for now) will be the North Jetty in Florence, OR (an underwater park, but not an off-limits zone) and the Yaquina Bay Fingers in Newport, OR. Second, I have my gear assembled and we will be making our dives tomorrow. I also have requisite life-support gear for maintaining the critters until Friday morning. (Powerheads, Air pumps/stones...access to all the cold fresh saltwater I can take home from the store.. but I don't foresee the need for it) I'm sure I have too much collection gear assembled, we'll see what we use and what we can forget about after this experience. I have nets, mesh "goody bags" (standard diver collection gear for when we're crabbing out on the coast), disposable plastic containers, buckets, coolers, etc, etc ad nauseum. LOL And one last thing. Water parameters from the North Jetty in Florence: Salinity: 32ppt (as SG will vary with temp, I used the refractometer to measure it) pH: 7.8 Ca: 360ppm ALK: 7 degrees dKh or 2.5 mEQ/L (and just for fun...I tested Nitrates of the "dirty water"...0ppm...looks like nature gets it right after all, eh? ) Judging from these measurements, I would say that you probably aren't going to need to supplement Ca levels with Kalk or really have to worry about alkalinity if you keep up with a good water change regimen. Wish us luck! Hermits and snails for sure tomorrow (although snail ID is going to be fun...there are an awful lot of carnivourous species out on our coasts...), along with a small sculpin if things go well. And we can also probably pull out a Purple Shore Crab or two. And Nuttall's (Heart) cockles too...although I do want to check their diet..if they're phytoplankton feeders or equal opportunity phyto/zoo feeders, a bit of supplementation with DT's ought to do the trick. Basically we're going to come back with what we can find (bearing in mind the age of the tank and resultant bioload stress...in short...not too many fish! ). Wish us luck and see you on Friday morning!! (I'll call with a catch report tomorrow night...) Cheers, Austin

Thanks, Joel. So many more letters than my old URS. (Upstate Reef Society) lol Cheers, Austin

Wow, Joel...just wow. When you first discussed this with me way back when I was blown away at what a great project this was going to be...now I'm completely and totally impressed! I can't wait to help stock it....get that chiller going! We'll be there Thursday with the first batch of critters! As I said at the shop today, it'll be a grab bag depending on what we can find...but I can at least guarantee hermits and snails...and some mud. I've never made a dive there without seeing at least a couple of small sculpin too...so keep your fingers crossed and we'll see what we can come up with for you. Oh..and a quick note on our second trip for you. Karin (the girlfriend/dive buddy) mentioned to me that we ought to be able to get those seastars you're after with a dive in Newport...we're planning it for the end of February/beginning of March. We'll be in touch! Cheers, Austin