NANFA-- snorkeling in Puget Sound

Jay DeLong (thirdwind_at_att.net)
Sun, 15 Aug 1999 22:05:26 -0700

I had the most awesome time yesterday. Jeff and Katrina Kruse and I went
snorkeling in Puget Sound near Tacoma. I'd been to that place before but
only above water. Underwater it was so different. Schools of fish were
just one interesting thing. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of them--
mostly surfperch--shiner surfperch, striped surfperch, and others. Small
schools of little salmon swam by rapidly a couple of times. On the bottom
under the dense algae in the shallow water were crabs, clams, sculpins and a
sea lance, probably lots more. We swam out to deep water to some old dock
pilings that looked rather plain above water, but underneath they were
covered with anemones, barnacles, seastars, sea cucumbers, crabs, mussels,
sculpins and more. Kelp stalks went down, down, down to the bottom out of
sight. Mesmerizing. I could see flashes of fish down there and
occasionally saw that they were surfperch. Some really huge shiner
surfperch swam by-- they were the size of dinner plates. Then a big
jellyfish floated in sight and we observed it close up. It was at least 2
feet across. This description didn't even come close to doing the
experience justice, but I wanted to share with you all. Thanks, Jeff!

Jay

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