When you think of the aquatic animals that typify the Pacific Northwest, you think of orcas, salmon, and harbor seals. They’re our unofficial mascots. And rightfully so! Orcas project mystical emotional complexity, salmon seem to possess great intuition, and harbor seals are the dog ballerinas of the sea.
Local diver and photographer Drew Collins loves those animals just as much as anyone else, but he says there are all kinds of other fascinating creatures swimming around Puget Sound—ones more indicative of the kind of life that flourishes in our especially cold, greenish, murky, and generally inhospitable waters.
The giant Pacific octopus, the wolf eel, and the Pacific spiny lumpsucker are three of Collins’s favorites. In his first book of photography, Puget Sound Underwater, he champions these and other unjustly unacknowledged critters.
