Nudi Gal: Full Swing

I am working hard to stay on top of my blog and nudis, but I am falling behind. This always happens in the beginning of a new count.

I need to confirm my white balance setting with Mike.

Tonight we go blackwater diving.

Here is a little bit of flair I have on my photo station nudi related:

I put a couple slugs in to discuss this morning. One was a creamy Gymnodoris I could not find… but then after a discussion with Terry, we figured out it was a Polycera sp. 3. So weird that they look so similar.

I learned something new about the naming methodology. Any sp. with a Number is tying to NSSI2. Any sp. with a Letter is newly identified since the book was published

I also learned that there are Light Organs on Placomorphus… when turn the lights out, there is phosphoresces in it that still glows. I had no idea! David Mullins turned me on to this..

https://nudibranchdomain.org/illumination-enlightenment-bioluminescence-in-nudibranchs/

The Moridilla brockii are only from India now. When finding it here, we should call it Moridilla cf. brockii for now.

Lik lik means small in Papua New Guinea. That’s how the Okenia lik lik got its name. But now that name has changed to Naisdoris vitiligata. Not as fun.

I just learned that there is one banana slug where they eat each others penises after mating. What!?!?!? This is also the mascot for University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

iNaturalist is another resource to review. Kati posts all of her stuff there.

https://www.inaturalist.org/

Terry refers to the Dirty Dorids often as they can be tough to tell apart.

Yesterday was a count of 159 for the group on Day 2. We are getting better.

I mentioned to Dave that I am trying to compile all the stories of Nudis and the culture surrounding it. He stated that I should talk to Mike Miller, our oldest participant as he has a ton of great stories.

The morning dives were Kirby (my favorite) and Bethlehem (Pirjo’s favorite). Yay!

At Bethlehem I found a child’s bunny stuffed animal in the rubble and when I flipped it over I found the most gorgeous Phyllodesmium poindemei. I feel like there is a bunny theme running through this trip.

Blackwater got bumped another night… so I’ll be doing two afternoon dives today.

In the afternoon, Mike edited one of my Photos. He over edited it in my opinion so I asked him to revert back to the pre-AI version. He called me a tough customer but Terry AGREED with me and even high fived me.

I am running out of storage in the cloud for my Lightroom, so I need to upgrade. Mike recommends an ALL IN ONE PACKAGE… and to not get Adobe Apps, get Lightroom LRC. I may consider Photoshop, but all the edits Mike was doing were in Lightroom, not Photoshop.

https://www.adobe.com/ph_en/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic/lightroom-cc-vs-lightroom-classic.html

Arthur’s Wall and Arthur’s Rock is the official name of the Crystal Blue House Reef Dive Site. I never knew!!! I guess it is named after the guy who lived next door and passed away.

Doh. I found out later from Glenn, my dive guide that they are in fact different. I’ll give Mike some crap about this.

On the afternoon dive, we had quite a lot of current, so Mario was pretty worried about us. I certainly knew that there was current, but I felt fine aobut it. Francis had a zoom call so he was planning on skipping the fourth dive but Pirjo and Mario also skipped so it was just me and Glen on the night dive. Woot! We found so much great stuff. And there was no current.

More specimens have been collected and they are sitting on the dive deck in some ocean water. It is so interesting to see them in a Tupperware and realize just how small they really are.