Bam, Blue Ring!

We pulled into Wainilu Island and at the end of the very first dive I found a blue ring octopus all on my own!  It was very shallow and I was almost out of air, but I brought my Go Pro Camera and got some decent video of it.  Later I found out that there was a bet among the Divemasters to see who could find the most blue ring octopus on this trip, so Graham wrote on the board:

            Pam 1   Divemasters 0

The boat had problems with their Nitrox system and we had to move to dive on air which means that our bottom time is shorter… but since we stay fairly shallow, it’s not much of a limitation to our 90 minute dives.

Speaking of which, even though the water temperature is high 70s/low 80s, we all get cold.  I’m wearing a 7 mil wetsuit with a hoodie/vest combo underneath but I still get cold at the end.  Graham actually brought his drysuit.  To dive Indonesia.   What!?!?!?!?

14 - Thuridilla albopustulosa

15 - Halgerda willeyi

Two with slightly different color variation.

16 - Ceratosoma magnificum

This one is huge and beautiful.

17 - Chromodoris verrieri

18 - Tambja morosa

I love the way this shot lined up.  Doesn't the soft coral "flower" look cool next to the gill "flower"?

19 - Nembrotha chamberlaini

20 - Phyllidiella pustulosa

21 - Melibe sp. 3

22 - Thecacera sp. 4

23 - Ceratosoma tenue

24 - Dendrodoris tuberculosa

I lost a picture of this one in an unfortunate software migration accident as I moved from Adobe Elements to Lightroom 4.  :(  This is a bad screen capture of a thumbnail.

25 - Melibe sp. 4     

This one is absolutely amazing.  Look closely and you can see right through this nudibranch.  Its rhinophores are on the left hand side here and and are circular (they look kinda like the space needle in Seattle).