Cleaning out the vault

Reminiscing over diving trips by looking back through old photos can make you feel quite bad sometimes. You are working 9-5, it's raining outside, your local dive site has the visibility of a glass of soy milk, the mercury in your thermometer has frozen solid... You know, the things that make you wish you were back at that perfect spot. For me that was on the awesome island on the Great Barrier Reef known as Lady Elliot Island. This place has boasted the best diving I have ever done, big call, but those who have dived LEI will certainly have it in their top 10 dive locations.

So as I was going through my photos I stumbled across a few images of nudibranchs, a Spanish Dancer - Hexabranchus sanguineus, a Neodoris chrysoderma, and a Hydatina physis to be precise.

Technically Hydatina physis isn't a nudibranch. Scientifically it is categorised in a different Order, Cephalaspidea. The individual I spotted was at Swansea on the Central Coast. There is a great drift dive there under the Swansea Bridge that I recommend for all divers, especially recently certified divers. This guy was approximately 50mm. The image I took does no justice to the vibrancy of the blue edges on the foot.




I had a lot of trouble identifying this Neodoris chrysoderma. It took me a while, but I stumbled across a post on the Sea Slug Forums. According to other divers on the Sea Slug Forums this nudibranch is quite common, and it isn't rare to see a group in a cluster of 5-10 individuals. This is a small branch, 30mm maximum, that can be coloured light yellow to orange. Regardless of the body colour, it always has white pustules.




The final entry into this blog is an image I had forgotten I snapped whilst on holidays at Lady Elliot Island. As I mentioned before, LEI is so far the greatest place I have ever dived. Manta rays, sharks (tigers, black and white tipped reef sharks), whales, turtles, dolphins; Deep, shallow, drift dives. All round, an awesome place to dive!

I spotted this nudi whilst reef walking, rather than diving, which is a shame as the Hexabranchus sanguineus, commonly known as the Spanish Dancer, has the ability to use its large parapodia to propel itself through the water. As far as I know it is the only Opisthobranch that moves in this way (please correct me if I am wrong!). I spotted this Spanish Dancer before I caught "The Nudibranch Disease", originally I had the impression that nudibranchs were all tiny 'sea slugs', and when I found one that was over 200mm I initially thought it must have been something else. I had heard people speak of Spanish Dancers swimming past, but I was under the impression that it was some kind of fish, or a squid like creature.




I hate doing this, but I am going to leave you on a negative note.
A very large amount of dives in a row have resulted in me exiting the water with BCD pockets full of plastic bags, bait packets, fishing line, sinkers, hooks, and general boating rubbish. I know all of you divers reading this blog would have the same experiences in seeing the horrible state of shorelines and shallow dive sites. I suggest that every few dives (if not every dive) it is beneficial to take a rubbish bag with you and do some collecting. There are some great bags you can buy from online stores and your local dive shops.

Thanks for your continued interest!

Keep on branchin'.
Dave

Hurry today only! Triple the deposit!

After a short time out of the water due to non-nudi related happenings (I proposed to my girlfriend, who is now my fiance!) I finally got to pull the neoprene back on and blow some bubbles.

A trip to my favourite nudi grounds was in order. The Slide, near Terrigal Haven, on the Central Coast of NSW is a pretty decent spot to view some branchs. I really need to get a grip of my pre-dive routine! I'm hopeless when it comes to packing the right things, charging batteries, remembering towels and spare undergarments!

Armed with my camera showing the dreaded half battery symbol, I jumped off the rock ledge and headed straight to the area of the dive site where you are pretty much guaranteed to spot a nudi. I wasn't to be let down as I spotted the first nudi of the day. Hypselodoris bennetti, sitting on a small piece of coral.



This nudibranch is a fairly common find at The Slide. I have also noticed that finding groups sharing a grazing area is common here too.



I am unsure if there is perhaps a subspecies, or just different markings, but I have noticed that some of the bennetti have a lot more magenta markings than others. This may just be variation between individual nudibranchs, or a subspecies, I haven't figured that one out yet. (Gary, help?)



My second find on this dive was another nudi that I have seen frequent this location before. Glossodoris atromarginata, a relatively large nudibranch which is easy to spot in good light due to the bright white body and wavy black margin. The individual pictured was approximately 80mm long, which would be around the largest I have seen of this species at this dive site.


The final entry to today's blog is a nudibranch I have not been able to identify. The image below is of a nudibranch approximately 40mm long, white body with long translucent foot, yellow spots on the body, smooth thin mantle, pink tipped rhinophores and gills.
I'll have to get the good people at www.nudibranch.com.au to help me with an ID on this guy.



Again, for anyone interested in nudibranchs check out www.nudibranch.com.au !!

Stay tuned for more branch mayhem!