8/18/2010 - Nudi Bonanza With A Side Of Fried Egg Jelly

Merry and I hit Buchanan's Reef again today. The visibility was down to twenty-five feet, which is still spectacular for Marineland.  The water had warmed up to a balmy 51F. I told Merry before the dive that I wanted to see how many different species of nudibranchs we could find on one dive. We ended with sixteen. We saw at least two more yesterday that we didn't find today.

Aegires albopunctatus

Aegires albopunctatus

Cadlina flavomaculata

Hermissenda crassicornis

Cuthona divae

Cuthona divae

Cuthona divae

Triopha catalinae

Cadlina limbaughorum

Cadlina luteomarginata

Acanthodoris hudsoni

Acanthodoris hudsoni

Diaulula sandiegensis

Color variation of Facelina stearnsi.

It was sometimes difficult to get shots with the Blue, Vermillion, Rosie and Gopher rockfish constantly checking out the bolt snap on my camera.

I saw a large Lingcod resting on the net which covers a large section of reef, but I only managed one lousy shot.


I spotted a pelagic tunicate, Pyrosoma atlanticum floating between the rocks. It's only the second one I've found in nearly 1500 dives. Today was dive number 1499.

Pyrosoma atlanticum

After nearly an hour of nudi hunting we began our ascent. Just as we were neared the ascent line I saw a large Fried Egg jelly, Phacellophora camtschatica. I spent the rest of the dive floating with it. I paid for it with a surface swim against the current.

Phacellophora camtschatica