Series Introduction.
All things must have a beginning, and putting these brief words prior to the beginning of my “series” about my subtidal ecological/natural history observations and “reflections”, is probably as good a place as any to put them. I hope to add to these tales from time to time, and I hope “the times to times” are more frequent than they have been previously in my blog.
Here I am exiting the water on the south shore of Alki Point in Seattle, Washington in October, 1982, after doing a dive examining the sea pea bed that was found offshore of that beach (R. Fredrickson image).
That is the plan at least.
If I can do it, I hope to add in this series many of my unpublished and, prossibly, unpublishable, observations made while diving over the period when I was actively doing subtidal natural history research; roughly the period from 1971 to 1993. There are a lot of reasons for writing this now, but suffice it to say, I am definitely not getting younger and it is possible that some of this material may be of interest to a few other people. At the very least, they, and the rest of the readership, should get a good laugh out of considering that I would think that it could be useful. 🙂
Nonetheless, I think it would be nice, if it simply did not disappear with my demise. Perhaps, as well, what I write here will serve as an historical record of what occurred prior to any future wholesale habitat destruction due to climate change or some more directly local human activity. Of course, the fact that many of the presumed untouched Puget Sound and Pacific NW subtidal habitats had previously been messed up seems to have escaped the notice of many people, researchers and divers alike, working in the region. I will try to point out some of these communities when the need arises.
On the other hand, maybe all I am doing, however, is just putting down the garbled memories of an old man. I guess you get to choose.
I will add these tales, or studies (depending on how seriously one wishes to take them), in no particular order over no particular time frame. Rather I will add them as my muse allows. Those readers who have previously read my ramblings will realize I know how fully well that my writing depends upon my personal muse and how she feels about each topic I try to write about. If she doesn’t like it… nothing good will be written. If she loves it… well, maybe the writting will still contain nothing good, but if so, there will be a lot of it! When she likes the topic, though, my good gawd, how the writing flows. The gorgeous litle blue-green minx (= my muse) has been known to change her mind in the middle of an article as well. That has NOT been a fun experience, but it occurs. As I am writing here to just enjoy the process, I think she will be the helpful creature she truly can be.
If anybody that reads these pages is a scientist, I will add the advice of “not to hold your breath waiting for any of this to appear in the peer-reviewed journals”. Trying to publish most natural history information and observations in such venues is a serious waste of time and effort. And if you have gotten this far, you have read the first paragraph and realize that I feel don’t have that much time to waste. So… On with the show!
To examine these posts/articles/essays in this “series” as a group:
Please click on the blog “Category” (listed at the top of the column to the right) titled:
“Ecological Observations From Northeastern Pacific Subtidal Habitats”.
