Strange Creatures at Santa Rosa
Melibe leonina (hooded nudibranch) is a very strange looking sea slug. The tentacle-fringed oral hood is expandable and actively used to capture prey. They can swim by flexing the body back and forth. It has translucent body with paddle-shaped dorsal appendages. They almost look like a cute and strange creature from anime or Sci Fi movie. Once in a while we see a large aggregation of these nudibranchs on giant kelp at Santa Rosa Island, California. Their range stretches from Alaska to California.
What is a Crinoid?
Crinoids, or feather stars, look like ferns or a bunch of feathers, but they are actually free-swimming marine invertebrate animals. Their feather-like arms are covered with sticky mucous and if you brush against them they stick to your wetsuit, gloves, hands, etc. and it is quite difficult to get them off. They are very pretty, especially when there are a few of them on a reef and have colorful anthias swimming around them.
The Big Orange Fish
An Ocean Safari diver carefully peeks over the reef to spy on a garibaldi, the California’s state marine fish. This bright orange fish is the largest member of the damselfish family, and also one of the few species that live in the temperate waters of California. During mating season, you have to approach them with caution. A male garibaldi guards the eggs very aggressively. They are known to attack anything and everything that swims too close to his nest.
Pink Soft Coral
We found a nice picture spot. A hole in a reef with beautiful soft corals and hydroids in Fiji. A young Ocean Safari admires at the delicate translucency of the pink soft coral.
A Spectacular Dive Day in California
Diving condition in California is usually tough. The water is cold, the current is often pretty strong, and we are happy if we have 30-40 feet visibility. But we keep diving here because every once in a while we are rewarded for our efforts with a spectacular sight like this. The water was cold as usual, but it was clear blue (100 feet visibility!) We were in the middle of a very healthy giant kelp forest with a school of silversides swimming through it with us.
