SOS

Thanks Leslie. Looking through my books I'd hazard a guess and say that its Megalomma vesiculosum - unfortunately I can only find drawings and one photo on the web which is of a larger more straggly specimen. I've seen this creature before around Britain and Ireland but never got a good ID on it.

Loads of Fire Worms in the Canary Islands - I got a shot a couple of weeks ago showing a 'fluffed up' one - something had upset it (not me) which I'll try to post.

Whilst diving today in a flooded Welsh slate quarry I spotted the attached rather bizarre creature. For the trechnically minded it was 15m down and shot at 1/13s at f/1.4 with an ISO equivalence of 800 (no flash) and the water temperature was 9 degrees C. The creature has been tagged.

This picture should be of great interest to the scientific community as it provides us with a great deal of fascinating information. Unfortunately, I think that the information is of rather more value to a psychologist studying divers than to a biologist. Hope it entertains.

Oh ho, this guy!  He sure fools a lot of people.  It's a benthic ctenophore, and it looks like the one calledd Coeloplana sp. 2 in Gosliner, Behrens, & Williams.  Unlike the usual planktonic forms these guys are found in soft bottoms & on leather corals & seastars. The twin lobes carry the branched feeding tentacles typical of all ctenophores.

 

Requests?  Worms, worms, and more worms, of course!   

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That's the second time I've been fooled by a ctenophore - and I'm pretty sure it was you who set me straigt on the other one too.

OK, you're on - worms coming up (so to speak.)

Frogfish

Whilst diving today in a flooded Welsh slate quarry I spotted the attached rather bizarre creature. For the trechnically minded it was 15m down and shot at 1/13s at f/1.4 with an ISO equivalence of 800 (no flash) and the water temperature was 9 degrees C. The creature has been tagged.

 

This picture should be of great interest to the scientific community as it provides us with a great deal of fascinating information. Unfortunately, I think that the information is of rather more value to a psychologist studying divers than to a biologist. Hope it entertains.

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Oh my god!!!! It's Son of Godzilla!* What have you done, Paul? Haven't 37 Japanese films & 1 Hollywood stinker taught you anything? Godzilla was an aquatica creature awakened by UW disturbances who went on to ravage Tokyo .... repeatedly! Someone needs to alert the Wales Home Security Team!

*Or should we call him Paulzilla?

I only photographed this version of Godzilla - it was already down there - along with some garden gnomes, several scuba type action men, varied strange other items and, in true christmas spirit, a tinselly waterlogged branch!

Seriously though, this quarry is right next to the UK's largest Hydro Electric Storage power station and when they switch it on, the vibration is somewhat startling underwater to say the least. In terms of its aquatic life it is a bit sparse. There were some trout (but these were nicked as people illicitly fished for them), a few eels and I've seen one rather worried looking goldfish. The large toad at 17m seen by several divers was in fact very dead!

I'll try to post some proper shots for ID soon.

Her is some for you from the west coast of Norway

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Hi Ingvald

Hope you don't mind me replying but I've also photographed Number 4 in close-up this year.

This worm is Serpula vermicularis. Rarely its a reef builder (there are biogenic reefs built by this worm in both Scotland and Ireland) - Do you get any of these reefs?

Number 4.

 

This worm is Serpula vermicularis. Rarely its a reef builder (there are biogenic reefs built by this worm in both Scotland and Ireland) - Do you get any of these reefs?

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Not as far I know, but there is alot in the deep dark fjords here we probely don't know about.

Oooh, something a little more challenging than the usual Indo-Pacific or Caribbean stuff! 4 is Serpula vermicularis as Paul said, and 3 is Ophiodromus flexuosus. I'm certain about those. The rest are guesses either because I'm not too familiar with the fauna or I can't see the characters necessary to be sure. 1: Hydroides norvegica, 2: Cerianthus lloydii, 5: Nipponnemertes pulcher (really uncertain on this one). thanks for the entertainment, Leslie