Odd, unexpected and mysterious

[Merry]

This is the only way I can describe what we find on Torrance Reef.

- bubbles rising from sulfidic vents on the seafloor
- an opportunistic puffball sponge, colonizing other sponges
- hundreds of minute nudibranchs
- neon orange nudi eggs (a first)
- entoprocts
- an invasive tunicate

Answers and more photos at Torrance Reef - Merry Passage

Doto columbiana and eggs on Aglaophenia sp.

The most beautiful Doriopsilla albopunctata I've ever seen.

Whose eggs?

An uncommon find, barely large enough to be a nudibranch, Trinchesia albocrusta

Filamentous bacterial mats (more info about the vents at link below)

From another vent

A possibly undescribed puffball sponge (comment by Tom Lee Turner, UCSB)

More of the puffball buds

Tunicate, Botryllus schlosseri

Entoproct, Barentsia sp.