Snootatunity

Five of our group are going on a day tour to see tarsiers, how salt is made and have a Filipino lunch on a floating restaurant.  I wasn't willing to give up a day of diving to do that.

John is so kind and lent me his floats to try out for the day.  He is leaving on an earlier flight tomorrow and isn't diving.  I am excited to see if I'm annoyed by them or if I like them.

The first dive was FABULOUS!!!  There were so many big juicy species!  Why we didn't do this dive until the last day is beyond me.  When I asked Larry, he said that it was because all Gary wanted was "Low and Slow".  That he didn't want to go deep. I'm pretty bummed.  I would have loved to dive this site way more often than just once on the last day.  Luckily, JR had me switch to Nitrox today so I could stay deep longer.

I was also dealing with new equipment (the floats) and a redistribution of weights (I put another 4 pounds on).  Here is my assessment of using the floats:

• It is easier on my wrist - I think the older I get, the less strength I am going to have in my right arm/fingers
• It is easier to focus - I don't have to support the weight of the housing anymore, just 
• Because the strobes are in a different position, there is less backscatter
• It is heavier on land
• There is more drag underwater, but if I put it either right in front of my body or just dangle it out to my right, it seems to be fine... in current, it might be another story
• The safety carabiner for my focus light should go on the right side as the left side will be used for snooting
• It is hard to turn the housing and shoot portrait, but that doesn't happen too often, and the benefits outweigh the annoyance
• It is an overall bigger setup and I am looking to get smaller, not bigger! 

Given this assessment, I think I am going to get two arms/floats and a port float.  I swear the underwater photography spend never ends!

As we were coming back up on the first dive, Caroline and JR were signaling to me about a camera.  I wondered what they meant.  Were they asking me how I liked the new float set up?  That's weird.  Why would they ask me that underwater during the dive?

Upon surfacing, I found out the story.  Caroline took her little camera down.  The only problem is that it is only rated to a certain depth, and we needed to go deeper to see some of the slugs.  So she left it on a ledge in the wall.  As we were coming back up, she couldn't find it.  That's what she and JR were signaling!!!

She surfaced without finding it and was so sad since she already had issues with two other cameras and purchased this one from Gary.  And she is headed to Romblon next.  I cannot imagine diving there without a camera.

It turns out that Larry found the camera on the wall... not knowing Caroline's plan and took it.  So yay!  She got her camera back.

I made up a new word: Snootatunity.  The perfect opportunity to snoot a subject.  Usually when a nudi is up on high, there is no current/backscatter and we are not in a rush.  Even more ideal if I have a dive guide willing to hold the snoot.

On the second dive, I had a snootatunity.  I shot a typically boring Phyllodesmium briareum and made it look sexy.

On the last dive of the day (and of the trip), Gary wanted to do just one really long dive.  I resigned.  We did a 120 minute dive at the Exploration Dive Site that has been dubbed "Nudi Central" after Gary's Facebook Group.  I think this site totally sucks and in my opinion, there was no reason to spend two hours on it.

During the dive I found a broken coconut and broke off a piece because it can be a nice natural background to photograph a species on.  I found a tiny little Goniobranchus coi that I carefully extracted and put on the coconut shell.  I asked the guide Jay to give it back to me and he agreed.  But after it got passed from person to person on that shell, it never made its way back to me.  Boo Hoo.  

After that last dive I was SO EXHAUSTED.  I cleaned up all my gear the best I could and then went back to my room to just hibernate for a bit.

This is the big party night, so I put on a nice dress and wore my glaucus atlanticus swatch and necklace to dinner.

Everyone was hanging out at the bar having drinks.  I bought John one to say thank you for lending me his floats for the day.  I spotted a Jenga game and fired one up with the dive guides.  It was a good game!  And it fell just before dinner so it was a perfect distraction.

The chef had prepared a special dinner buffet with a pig roast.

During dinner Gary was talking to Jamie, the resort manager and was insisting that the dive crew come to sit with us.  There were no chairs nor space to do so, but Gary was fired up about it.  Jamie insisted that Gary not talk to them.  This is a cultural thing and they don't want the waitstaff to wait on them as they are peers.  Gary went anyway.  Even after a stern warning not to.  

There was a live band playing and the resort staff put on a special dance and then sang a goodbye song to "leaving on a jet plane".  It was very sweet and there was some dancing with everyone but I needed to exit to get some alone time.

Species Wrap

83 - Aegires minor

84 - Aegires serenae

85 - Tambja morosa

86 - Goniobranchus leopardus

87 - Phyllidiopsis fissurata

88 - Chromodoris willani

89 - Philine orca

90 - Mariaglaja alexisi

91 - Phyllidiella nigra

92 - Chelidonura varians

Special Elysia

I think John and I are the only two people uploading to the Magic Oceans slideshow.

We had our group shot taken on the boat.  I was worried that we would forget about it and not include some people who were leaving a little early.  I whispered in Gary's ear asking about when that might happen... and we did it right away there on the boat.  I'm doing my best to be a "Gary whisperer"...

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.

I started calling Caroline "Tiny Eyes" because she will just sit at a certain place for like five minutes and find the tiniest things. Then I was singing it to the tune "Private Eye" by Hall and Oates.  

At dinner, Gary wanted to buy my Glaucus atlanticus necklace from me.  He wouldn't give up and was willing 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:

77 - Trinchesiid sp. 

Posted to Nudibase

From Marli Wakeling:

Trinchesiid; I have not found a match.

78 - Tenellia sibogae

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...

From Hilton Galvão Filho on Nudibase:

I’m obsessed with this. There are tons of undescribed Elysia species, but this one is particularly intriguing. In addition to its remarkably long rhinophores, with digestive gland branching inside, and the bright red neck mark, it has a very distinctive parapodial shape. The paired protuberance right before the tail is stunning. The parapodia also show a wing-like projection right in the middle. I wonder where this species would fall in a phylogenetic tree, given all these body modifications.

From Marli Wakeling on Nudibase:

Agreed, it is an interesting animal; when I looked for similar animals I found only one with these odd rhinophores, but the body shape is quite different: https://nudibranchdomain.org/wp-content/uploads/Cap-Elysia-sp32-790w.jpg

From Hilton Galvão Filho on Nudibase:

bora coletar :)

I had to look up what that meant.  It is a common Brazilian Portuguese slang phrase to initiate a group action.  It serves as an invitation to move, create, or act together, similar to "let's go" in English.

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:

69 - Goniobranchus sp.

I thought was Sagaminopteron at first so didn't get great shots of it.

70 - Thorunna halourga

71 - Trapania darvelli

72 - Phyllodesmium rudmani

73 - Phyllodesmium koehleri

74 - Scyllaea fulva

75 - Lomanotus sp.

76 - 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 - Goniobranchus coi

<pic coming soon>

67 - Phyllodesmium colemani

68 - 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