Goodbye Winter!

G'day Wetpixies,

I haven't been diving a great deal lately what with the winter weather and the accompanying ailments conspiring to

keep me dry. But as luck would have it managed to get out on the weekend and celebrate the last day of winter with

a dive at beautiful Blairgowrie Marina. Even though water clarity was down or perhaps because it made me look harder

I found some lovely critters one of which was a Nudibranch I've been trying to spot for some months now.

Here's my find, a Winged Thecacera, Thecacera pennigera feeding.

And another I spotted out on the sand.

Here's a front-on view of the beauty too.

I also discovered a large Eastern stargazer, Kathetostoma laeve.

Here it is settling back into the sand.

The nudi shots were taken with 2 x Inon UCL-165AD lens and I used the UWL-105AD for the Stargazer.

Looking forward to longer days and warmer waters

Cheers,

Jim.

Jim mate, I'm getting a Déjà vu.

Nice stuff!

Richard.

totally awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

That nudi is an introduced species yeah? I was told that somewhere along the way.

great job on the star gazer find. thats one of the biggest ive seen. was he right near the t intersection? cause i spotted one that size 3 weeks ago on the dm course

hope your well!

cal

I love those poka dot Nudibranchs!!!

Beautiful Nudibranchs Jim.

And that is a huge Stargazer.

cheers

jeff

Thanks guys, I was chuffed to finally find this little Nudi after I'd been on the lookout for it for some time now. As to it's origin Sea Slug Forum states

Originally reported from the Atlantic coast of Europe, it is now known from South Africa, West Africa, Pakistan, Japan, Brazil, eastern Australia and New Zealand.

Who knows, it could have certainly been spread by shipping. First dive I've seen this one and I found three different individuals in three very different

locations on the dive site so I had a good opportunity to get some good images of it to show you.

As for the Stargazer Jeff it sure was a bigun as big as any I've seen and Cal I think it may have been the same individual you saw as that's the same area

I spotted it, hope you are doing well up in QLD mate

Cheers,

Jim