Nudi Gal: Kick Off

I woke up early today. And there is a kettle in my room now so I can have coffee here and read and relax and even have WiFi. I used to have to get ready and trek down to the dining room for all of this. It’s nice… and the birds are singing cute little songs outside.

We dove two dives in the morning, but these don’t count as the workshop did not yet officially start.

The workshop kicked off at 1pm-ish. We had to wait for Jim as his morning dives went long. Mike kicked off by saying we all had to go back to immigration in manila to get our passports stamped. He was very serious. Silence from everyone…

April Fools!!!

As Mike announced Jim he played some bagpipe music and some pumped up music for Terry. We learned that there are 1200 slugs found in this area. Last year the group found 454 species.

This is the sixth year for the Anilao Nudibranch Citizen Science Workshop and Jim will be graphing it all.

Learned the process of providing our species. We have to provide our list by 7:15am each day. And if we want any shots in the review it should be on the frogfish by then too.

While getting ready for the afternoon dives, my housing battery stayed I had to change the battery in my housing

Terry dove with our group on the first dive on Koala.

He has a license to collect nudis and carries a mesh bag with all his tools. He collected one and has it out in salt water on the dive deck. He thinks it might be a new one… possibly a Cratena of some sort?

I asked him if he had ever been confronted by a local for collecting and had to show his permits… and he has! Can you imagine?

On the second dive of the afternoon, Pirjo lost her light and pointer… Rainer found it and brought back to her. Mario had a cramp in his leg and had to go up early. I was shooting a Trapania darvelli, and then lost the group. Gah, the current was so bad that I had to go up early alone. So sad.

At dinner, I pitched the idea of a reality tv show to Terry. He loves the movie The Big Year too! He said that the new NSSI3 version of the book will still be a year and a half out.

Georgina and I decided we are doing a blackwater dive tomorrow night at 7pm Francis coming too.

On a personal note, I got a voicemail that my Grandmother’s youngest sister, Aunt Tee who is 97 years old is in hospice. I am so sad. She was a huge fan of my diving and would kick my ass in scrabble when I visited her in Ft Lauderdale. What a really special person.

I was too tired (and a little sad) to sit with everyone and review my photos. I needed to sleep and do it in the morning.

Slugs for today…

12 - Glossodoris pallida