Nudi Gal: 2024

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Devious New Deep Sea Slug

There is a new mtsterious Slug Species making the news!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MszfZriuVVs

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-bioluminescent-sea-slug-deep-ocean.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/science/sea-slug-nudibranch-deep-sea.html

Sunday, October 6, 2024

That's right. I went to the suburbs. But in my defense, it was for slugs.

Terry Gosliner gave a talk at the Mount Prospect Public Library: More than a pretty face - What nudibranchs tell us about evolution and conservation.

I finally gave Terry the nudibranch gavel that I've been holding on to since 2019!

I met my friend Ashley and her daughter Maggie and I gave her a stuffed "sea bunny"... a Jorunna funebris.

but interestingly enough, during the presentation, Terry said that the REAL sea bunny is the Jorunna parva. I saw it last December in Alor.

I cannot wait to go back. Ooooh, it is officially next month!

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Leaf Sheep Goes Pop Culture

Soooo... at the end of September, the Season Premiere of The Masked Singer featured a "Leaf Sheep".

Here is the clip:

https://youtu.be/Eg9esNUQRKc?si=DO4oStXhOau9tWQ6

It turns out the singer was John Elway. It doesn't appear that anyone realized this was a Costasiella kuroshimae, a nudibranch or even a slug but hey, at least a species is in the spotlight!

A lot of divers call this guy "Shawn the Sheep".

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

That's a Wrap

Well, today is the last day of diving. Just two dives this morning.

On the first dive of the morning, I got to sit with the biggest Melibe virdis. I studied it and watched it eat. Whoa. I stayed there so long that a pipefish decided to hide in my camera arms. It was so cute I took a video.

On the second dive I found some additional interesting slugs I hadn’t seen yet on this trip.

Chris, John and I had our picture taken on the boat:

We had a last night party where there was a big Filippino meal and then we had the slide show. I just slipped away back to my cabin after. I was so tired.

Here are the slugs for the last day:

161 - Okenia kendi

162 - Hypselodoris whitei

163 - Goniobranchus rufomaculatus

164 - Mexichromis mariei

Well, I am grateful that I was still able to take some pictures, but I certainly know it is time for a new camera setup.

I saw many nudibranchs on this trip I had never seen before in my life. That is super exciting. I’ll try to compile that list.

Here is the graph of the Nudis found in Anilao:

I am trying a new thing where I am keeping a Life List of Nudis and all the ones I've ever seen. That way each trip I can say which ones were new in life for me. For this trip to Anilao, there are 18 new ones:

Ardeadoris averni
Armina scotti
Atagema sp. 13
Chromodoris sp. 2
Doriprismatica sp. 3
Doris sp. 8
Elysia cf. degeneri
Elysia sp. 18
Ercolania endophytophaga
Eubranchus sp. 23
Goniobranchus sp. 42
Hallaxa iju
Jorunna sp. 3
Melibe megaceras
Phyllodesmium kabiranum
Polybranchia jensenae
Thecacera sp. 11
Thorunna sp. 6

I did 66 dives on this trip bringing me to 2,315 lifetime dives.

Until next time…

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Feeling Sluggish

This is the last full day of diving. I am totally OK with that. I am getting tired.

We did Bethlehem and the wreck in the morning and some more local dives in the afternoon. I was cold a lot. So sad because it is almost 80 degrees in the water.

I found some interesting nudis today and the camera was just not cooperating. I got some shots but they are not great.

Mike went through some new camera ideas with me at lunch. I took random scrappy notes on my phone. He is either recommending the most recent version of my Olympus camera or possibly switching to Nikon. I’m not even sure the most recent version of my Olympus camera would be able to do blackwater photos. This is going to set me back pretty big financially. I am ok with that. I just don’t want camera problems to be what is holding me back.

It may be time to grow up and buy a real Nikon camera that can handle what I want to do. I need to work on a comparison spreadsheet.

Of way more interest, here are today’s nudis:

146 - Goniodoridella sp. 5

147 - Sakuraeolis nungunoides

148 - Verconia sp. 5

149 - Hypselodoris decorata

150 - Nembrotha sp. 1

151 - Dermatobranchus albus

152 - Phyllidia polkadotsa

153 - Facelind sp. 2

154 - Mexichromis pusilla

155 - Phyllidiella nigra

156 - Ceratosoma sp. 1

157 - Phyllidia picta

158 - Hallaxa iju

159 - Lobiger viridis

160 - Polybranchia jensenae

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Fruit Salad

Well, my housing swap didn’t really help any. My camera is still blacking out. It is definitely a camera problem.

In the morning we went to the Aphol and Coconut dive sites. They call this the fruit salad morning. Aphol was really pretty with lots of coral, but slow on the nudis. I did however find a flatworm with the name JAY down the side. Are flatworms learning to communicate?

John finally went to the doctor this morning and was able to join us on the afternoon dives. We did a really mucky site and then the town pier again.

I was so cold on both dives as well as the trip home. I have taken to asking for hot water and then holding it under a towel I make into a hoodie so it is my own personal sauna. It seems to help. I cannot believe I am getting so cold in the Philippines.

Here are the slugs for today:

138 - Berthellina delicata

139 - Atagema sp. 13

140 - Goniobranchus preciosus

141 - Mexichromis multituberculata

142 - Dendrodoris nigra

143 - Melibe virdis

144 - Petalifera ramosa

145 - Melibe megaceras

Friday, March 8, 2024

House Swap

I am starting to get tired of my vacation. It would be one thing if my camera was working well and I was into learning all of these photo techniques, but I am just trying everything possible to keep it working over these last few days.

I am trying to stay positive and enjoy the diving itself.

I made all four dives. I was cold and was going to give up on the night dive but I am so glad I went. I saw many new nudis for this trip and a couple that were new to my life list.

There is an anemonefish on the wreck named Grimace who has lived here for years. He has something wrong with his lip so everyone can tell exactly which fish he is.

I shared with Mike that he should have a five timers club like they have for Saturday Night Live. Instead of smoking jackets, the people who have come to Crystal Blue five times or more should have a special hood where they could have stars or patches on it.

After dinner I decided to change the housings… just to see if that fixes things. I took a few shot and I am pretty sure it blacked out once. Oh well, let’s just try using this other housing for a bit.

Here are the super cool nudis today

119 - Mexichromis trilineata