Special Elysia

I have an idea for a Nudi Spelling Bee.  My idea is to have a few of the experts get shown a nudibranch and then they have to name it and spell it correctly.  Since the experts are across the globe, we could do it on Zoom and as a fundraiser for nudi research.  Terry Gosliner would moderate... and people could vote for which expert they think will win by donating to the cause.

I also really would love to do a nudi fashion show at some point.  People could show off all of their nudibranch themed merchandise.  I mentioned it here at Magic Oceans to the manager Jamie to see if we could set up a runway... and Gary squashed the idea faster than I could get it out of my mouth.  I get that this is his trip, but new ideas might be fun and interesting.

Gary very excited about a shell of a veliger sea butterfly/sea angel he found on the afternoon dive.  I didn't think sea angels were nudis, but upon further research, pages 386 and 387 in NSSI2 talk about Pteropods.  OMG, I continue to learn new things.  I wonder if he will count it even though he just found the shell.

On another note, he wants to count the land slug we keep seeing.  Really?

There was a very special nudi on the night dive.  I ran out of bottom time because on air and JR brought the critter up to me in a shell so I could shoot it.

At dinner, Gary wanted to buy my Glaucus atlanticus necklace from me.  He wouldn't give up and wanted to pay $600 for it.  I told him no way because I got it from my sisters who found it on eBay.  I told him I'd send him that link so he could buy his own.

Then he misremembered who found the Phyllidiopsis shireenae.  I found it, not Elisha... but he kept insisting it was her.  I think he was a few beers in...

More More More:

76 - Unknown

Posted to Nudibase

77 - Tenellia sibogae

78 - Elysia sp.

It may be E. pusilla, but people were talking about its fuzzy edge and maybe that is different.  

79 - Phyllidiopsis shireenae

80 - Phyllidia willani

81 - Chromodoris strigata

82 - Elysia sp.

From Cory Pittman on Nudibase:

Your animal has extraordinarily long rhinophores with a single prominent branch of the digestive gland running to their tips (with only a few short side branches). In contrast, mercieri has rhinophores that are longer than most Elysia spp but not that long. And, they have many complex branches of the digestive gland. Also, the brick-red spots are random rather than fused behind the head. And, the papillae are more prominent. That's based on images from i-nat and NSSI2. So, I could be wrong (some Elysia spp are "hyper-variable") but I probably wouldn't lump them...

It's most likely undescribed. There's no closer match in NSSI2...

Here are some other views of it:

My Funny Valentine

 Happy Valentine's Day!  I love this card that the California Academy of Sciences put out:

That's Terry Gosliner.  He is one of the few scientists actively working on describing new species.

In between the two morning dives, Vanessa spotted a "snot" on the bow near the boat line.  Turns out it was a Scyllaea fulva.  A species we hadn't seen yet.  We put it in a cup of sea water and took pictures.  Then Gary put it back on the mooring line.  So we saved it!

JR had the second half of the day off, so I just hung around the group on both dives.

On the afternoon dive, Caroline pointed out to me something on a hydroid. I didn't think this was a nudi since it looked like the critter had feet.  But upon further examination, it IS TOTALLY a nudi. The Lomanotus sp.  It is just that the foot of the nudibranch has stripes.  New learning for me.  I am so glad I got at least a few photos of it.  She also found another Lomanotus, so I started calling her the Lomanotus Queen.

On the night dive, I wasn't finding much.  Then I saw everyone was waiting in line for something.  I was getting annoyed, so I went to look for other stuff and I found a Goniobranchus geometricus and a Thuridilla lineolata.  Which is two more than I found on the rest of the dive!  But when finally everyone else was done shooting, they had left.  And I for the life of me could not find the subject.  Ugh!  I was so mad I started yelling underwater.  John finally came over and saved me... he showed me the nudi.  God love him.  It was a Marionia sp. 15.  The sea lice was really bad and I couldn't get a good shot.

As I came back from the night dive and walked up my porch, there was a land slug on it.  Whoa.  My funny valentine...

Here are the lovely underwater slugs for today:

68 - Unknown

69 - Thorunna halourga

70 - Trapania darvelli

71 - Phyllodesmium rudmani

72 - Phyllodesmium koehleri

73 - Scyllaea fulva

74 - Lomanotus sp.

75 - Marionia sp. 15

Perspectives

I learned that when nudis are stressed, they start mating.  They want to keep their species going.

The morning dives were really good for me, but bad for others.  It's so funny that all of us go down on the same dive and come up with different experiences!  I asked Larry the dive site name and he said "Boring".

I learned about the differences between:

• Goniodoridella savignyi
• Goniodoridella geminae
• Goniodoridella unidonta

I have an audio file I had Gary dictate.  I'll transcribe it soon.

There was some excitement about organizing a Blackwater Dive.  It was quickly squashed as the resort really did not have the capability at this time to do it.  I guess they do advertise it as an option on their website.

On the fourth dive of the day on the house reef wall I went a little deep and ran out of bottom time because I switched to air.  Oh well, I don't feel like I missed anything.

I wore my Elysia necklace charm to dinner.  I put it on a hair tie because the necklace strap broke.  I need to replace that!

58 - Chelidonura amoena

59 - Verconia romeri

60 - Trinchesiid sp.

61 - Berthella martensi

62 - Thuridilla carlsoni

63 - Phyllidiopsis xishaensis

64 - Goniodoridella geminae

65 - Hypselodoris tryoni

66 - Phyllodesmium colemani

67 - Sagaminopteron nigropunctatum

HBD Roxy

At breakfast, the staff sang happy birthday to Roxy for her 31st.  They brought her a pancake covered in fruit.

My birthday gift was to braid her hair on the way to the first dive. She was so happy and gave me a hug.

On the first dive we saw three very special Bornella anguilla.  

The crew brought local hot chocolate for the surface interval.  I didn't like it as much as the 3 in 1.

The second dive was so murky, I lost EVERYONE and went back up to the surface to ask the crew where they went.  I reconnected and then completely lost them again.  Oh well, we were only at like 15 feet so I went off exploring on my onw.  Honestly I was totally ok with that.

I had carmelized banana with ice cream for lunch dessert.  It was so yummy.

The third dive had some good variety of topography.  I really liked going a little deeper and exploring some caverns and crevices.

I was shooting some Hypselodoris bullocki mating.  I took a long time on them and after I was done, Caroline made a hand signal to me underwater.  She was stabbing with her pointer stick.  What she trying to kill me?  I really didn't know what she meant.  It went on for a little bit and finally I just shrugged and tried to communicate that I didn't know what she was saying.  I was so worried that she was mad at me.  After the dive, she said that she found some fishing line and wanted a knife to cut it free.  OMG, her knife gesture seemed like she wanted to kill me! 

I really like this drybag that Karole has.  It is from Nudiwear based in Hawaii.  I think I want to get one.

The Night Dive got canceled.  There is a big storm coming in.  I was really disappointed, but I understand.  Safety first.

The chef made such a cool cake for Roxy at dinner.

Today's Nudis

52 - Bornella anguilla

53 - Dermatobranchus sp. 8

54 - Dermatobranchus rodmani

55 - Phyllidia picta

56 - Chromodoris lochi

57 - Goniobranchus fidelis

Move Like Melting

Today we had two great morning dives... although super shallow again.  So much so that I really don't want to pay an extra $30/day for Nitrox.  There is no benefit.  So I switched to air and reset both dive computers.

At lunch, I gave Gary my rubber chicken since he was showing so much interest in the crocodile squeaky toy.  I explained the concept of Chicken Stu to him... and the fact that our group is so responsible ,we really don't need it.

We went back to the same area for two afternoon dives... no night dive today.  I'm good with that.  So basically we dove the same-ish dive site for four dives today.

On the afternoon dive, the guides were attaching the crocodile and chicken stu to different divers without them knowing.  Squeaky toys everywhere.

There is this crazy old Filipino song called Pamela 1 "doo doo doo doo doot", Pamela 2... and all staff members remember it and keep singing it to me.  Lee Ann described the lyrics as a silly sexy song.  

[Intro]

Let's play

One, who's betting

Two, come on in

Three, four

Pamela  one, pamela-mela one

Pamela  two, pamela-mela two

Pamela  three, pamela-mela three

Pamela  four, pamela-mela four

[Hook]

Pamela  one, move your body

Pamela  two, move like this

Pamela  three, it's tickling

Pamela  four, imitate F4

[Chorus]

Dance, move like melting

Shake, beg like you're going deaf

Just don't give your head a headache

Everyone keeps commenting about my relief zipper.  They think it is funny at first and then they really want one.  I keep sending them to look at Sea Gods wetsuits.

We saw a HUGE group of Doto ussi hiding in some fire coral… which is super weird because they are usually on hydroids.  The guides also moved a couple of them off of the habitat for better photos, which I don't necessarily like.

On the last dive of the day I found an Elysia marginata up on a rock and thought I should snoot it.  So I set that up, but the snoot strobe was still attached to the arm.  Meh, I didn't do great.  So I decided to take the snoot all the way off.  That was better.  Then JR came along and asked if he could help.  I enthusiastically handed him my strobe.  These shots were awesome AND another slug came into frame and I got snooted mating photos!

During that dive I also realized I forgot to mount camera correctly in the housing.  It still worked mostly, just during the snoot session, I couldn't always get the shutter to click.

It got so dark that at the end of the dive I was using my black light torch to light up the coral.  We had to surface at a certain time though so that the boat could get back to the resort before sunset.  They don't have any running lights for nighttime.  Yikes!

Gary had some beer brought on the boat for a little celebration but I don't think anyone drank one except him.

At dinner I sat with the Aussie crew.  There was a delicious raw fish starter and Karen and I asked for seconds.  We shared stories and book recommendations.

Gary thinks we are at 100 species overall.  My count is 51 now.

42 - Hypselodoris decorata

43 - Doto ussi 

44 - Thorunna furtiva

45 - Elysia sp. 8

46 - Elysia marginata

47 - Elysia pusilla

48 - Tenellia sp. 6

49 - Tenellia sp. 79

50 - Dermatobranchus fortunatus

51 - Samla bicolor

Night Dive Navigator

Today was a cloudy almost stormy day.  The best thing is that underwater, it really doesn't matter.

As I walked to breakfast, I heard a dog barking.  I looked over and saw that it was just Gary.  He has this talent to bark EXACTLY like a dog.  A man of many talents.

My snippet of the morning was that there is a "finger patterned" Nembrotha lineolata.  They found it the other day.  I didn't see it.  I'll see if I can get a copy of the picture.

I had such a nice chat with Alisha on the way to the divesite.  She worked in the dive industry in Australia but has been away from it for like six years.  She still does marine biology research.  And her mom is also starting to suffer from dementia, even though she is very young.  I could totally empathize.

The resort is down one guide, so Anne-Li and I got split up into two different groups.  I was put with some less experienced divers, so they put the Assistant Manager of the resort, Alisa with me.  It was really great and we found some terrific things.  After the first dive we were at the surface for quite some time as we were the last to be picked up.  She is really darling.

Gary was rallying the guests for a night snorkel, but I would much rather dive as it is hard to take photos on a snorkel with a bigger camera.  I asked John if he would be interested in doing an unguided house reef night dive and he said he would.  Hooray!

The afternoon dive was just a mass of divers on a silty site.  There were some good finds though.

Anne-Li and Caroline joined John and I for the night dive.  I really wanted to get to the wall.  So I had us surface swim to the moored boat in harbor and then dropped down right on the reef.  It worked like a charm.  I even navigated back to the spot we descended.  I was so much happier doing this than just snorkeling the house reef.

Gary has put his stickers everywhere at the resort.  It is appropriate to put one in the dive shop, but he also put them on really nice woodwork in the dining room and the bathroom.  I jokingly apologized to Jamie the resort manager on Gary's behalf.  

Jamie also walked me through how the photo display works.  The have a certain album for current guests that just displays photos in random order like a screensaver.  Then every once in a while Jamie archives these photos to a backup.

I showed my cross stitch patterns to some folks at dinner.  Here are some of the stitch/photo pairings:

Here are today's slugs:

32 - Goniobranchus verrieri

33 - Caloria indica

34 - Thuridilla albopustulosa

35 - Sakuraeolis  nungunoides

36 - Mariaglaja sandrana

37 - Notarchus indicus

38 - Diniatys dubius

39 - Halgerda batangas

40 - Miamira miamirana

41 - Goniobranchus reticulatus