Nudi Gal: Nudi Drip

I am trying not to pay attention to what is going on back home, but man… the stock market tanked yesterday. Oof. That hurt.

At breakfast, Harvey told me that there is an Olympus diopter for focusing that might help when using the 60mm. I need to research what that is.

In the morning photo review, Terry told us that the name of the Ercolania endophytophaga is because…

Endo = internal

Phyto = plant

Phaga = to eat

So I guess we can call any vegetarian we know a PhytoPhaga.

Here are some other nudi name breakdowns:

• kalawaka is galaxy in Tegalan

• longicornum is long horns

• buko is coconut

• lacuna has clear circles that look like holes… lacuna means hole in latin

Nembrotha milleri is named for Mike Miller who is here at the workshop!

Terry answered the question: Why does studying nudibranchs matter?

• Nudibranchs are great indicators of ecosystem health. If have many, the health is good.

• We need to document all of them before they go extinct!

• They assist in biomedical research. Scientists study how simple nervous systems function.

• They have been used to create new drugs to combat HIV and certain types of cancer.

We decided that we will be going to a couple of special dive sites this week: Devils Point and Cemetery. There was also talk of Chicken Feather and Bonito. Or Ligpo then Dive-n-Trek.

The gap on the trending curve is narrowing between this workshop and previous ones… we are now at 241 total.

Oh no, we had two really unproductive dives this morning. But I did find this mutant nudi:

On the surface interval I asked Terry how to read a scientific paper. He said to first read the summary, and then the discussion. If I wanted to know more, then I should read the whole article.

The resort ran out of bananas today. This sucks because it really helps to ward off cramps underwater.

I found an air breathing slug today… Titiscania limacine. It doesn’t count in the species list but it was cool to photograph.