In my Intertidal & Underwater gallery you’ll notice several frilly or alien-looking creatures caught on all sorts of surfaces. These nudibranchs (pronounced new-dih-braynks) are especially fascinating to both marine biologists and underwater photographers. My images only give a small taste of how oddly beautiful and colorful these creatures can be.
It’s a deep rabbit hole to start researching the wide array of species around the world. There’s a lot to learn, and a plethora of resources online. More fun, you’ll find that nubibranchs have their own cult followings all over the ‘net. Take a look.
Those of you that know me best: You know how much I enjoy tidepooling and dockfouling, hunting for these and some of the other hard-to-find animals hiding under rocks & docs. My favorite moment is discovering the tiniest of nudibranch, such as the British Columbia doto in the image below. At about 3mm in length, it took a steady hand with the trusty underwater camera to get close enough for that shot. Other nudibranch that I’ve come across, such as the Monterey Sea Lemon, are often 5-8cm long.
Watch for my future posts about tidepooling and dockfouling, and I’ll share some tips for finding nudibranchs along the CA coast.
