Gymnodoris

[bvanant]

Here is another from Triton Bay. A nice little Gymnodoris (they are voracious hunters of other nudis). OM-1, 45 macro, AOI housing, Weefine Ring light. Enjoy

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Absolutely gorgeous!

Erik

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

What is it on to get that reflection? Anything I've tried, they don't like.

 

[TostitoBandito]

Please don't touch or manipulate wildlife. You can get plenty of great photos without doing the first thing you should be taught not to do after getting certified.

 

[bvanant]

This is an old argument/discussion. David Doubilet did a whole Nat Geo cover story on nudibranchs on an infinite curve white background. This brought the beauty of nudis to a whole new audience. I had photos of nudis on stage at the scuba show. A women came over and started haranguing me about moving sea slugs. I asked her what she did to the snails that ate her tomatoes. She said she put out pans of beer that they crawled in and died (happily I suppose). I told her our discussion was over. We all have our own idea of ethical behavior, I find a nudibranch put it on a stage, shoot it and put it back where it was. This guy was crawling on the sand, he went back where he was. On the other hand, I don't go to shark sites where sharks are baited, this is not for me good behavior. So if these types of photos annoy you, don't look.

Bill

 

[TostitoBandito]

Giving images like these exposure them only encourages others to engage in similar unethical behavior for the sake of instagram clout, contests, or whatever. Everyone who does this seems to selfishly think "oh it's no big deal it's just me moving one nudi for a shot every now and then". Ignoring the fact that the more pictures like these get published, the more people start manipulating or harassing wildlife to get similar results, and then you end up with multiple divers on a dive touching stuff. You can't argue that this doesn't impact the animals in popular heavily dived areas. Your neighbor's snails aren't in a marine protected area full of tourists. I believe you when you say you just do this for nudi shots and as a photographer I totally get why, but there's plenty of others who may not see a line between moving a nudi, grabbing/chasing a turtle, harassing whales, hitting coral, etc...

It's just frustrating because this kind of stuff gives photographers a bad reputation among other divers, and is in part why some localities like Thailand are cracking down on them. That's why those of us who take care not to do anything like this get annoyed when these behaviors get positive attention.

 

[bvanant]

My neighbors snails are DEAD, she kills them, and it is her tomatoes and her ethics. I curse the snails in my garden but let them eat. My take on exposure is more complex. Showing divers a picture of a nudibranch is one thing, but showing a non-diver a beautiful sea creature might in fact teach her not to throw plastic bags in the storm drain (I can dream). It seems that you have a different definition of ethical than I do and we should agree to disagree.

As for impact on slugs, I know a lot of Marine Biology researchers who do research on nudibranch behavior (particularly for learning studies) and they tell me repeatedly that handling nudibranchs has no measurable effect on their subsequent behavior. That being said, I won't move a nudi that is eating or laying eggs or mating, but if he is crawling on the sand he can pose and then go back to what he was doing.

I completely respect your views, they just aren't mine.

BVA

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Giving images like these exposure them only encourages others to engage in similar unethical behavior for the sake of instagram clout, contests, or whatever. Everyone who does this seems to selfishly think "oh it's no big deal it's just me moving one nudi for a shot every now and then". Ignoring the fact that the more pictures like these get published, the more people start manipulating or harassing wildlife to get similar results, and then you end up with multiple divers on a dive touching stuff. You can't argue that this doesn't impact the animals in popular heavily dived areas. Your neighbor's snails aren't in a marine protected area full of tourists. I believe you when you say you just do this for nudi shots and as a photographer I totally get why, but there's plenty of others who may not see a line between moving a nudi, grabbing/chasing a turtle, harassing whales, hitting coral, etc...

It's just frustrating because this kind of stuff gives photographers a bad reputation among other divers, and is in part why some localities like Thailand are cracking down on them. That's why those of us who take care not to do anything like this get annoyed when these behaviors get positive attention.

I'd like to agree with you. I dive a heavily photographed and dived location. The bottom is live almost to the shoreline. Divers from around the world are here with big hunkin cameras and poor skills, fins flopping, mucking up the site, or laying down splayed out across the rubble ( sealife habitat) taking dozens of photos with dual strobes. A popular critter may be subjected to thousands of flashes in a day. Classes with too many students with no skills and danglies create silt bombs. VAn loads of divers arrive with their shop and bad buoyancy. Its a mess. Then you have the beach goers picking up sea stars and seahorses, stomping through sea grasses. FIshermen are throwing cast nets, or cut the snagged lines creating entanglement hazards for both divers and marine animals...and some will try to hook a dive flag. Boaters encroach nearby at the sandbar.
Yeah, its a mess.
Picking up a nudi is hardly the problem.

 

[TostitoBandito]

Yeah I get it. There are many problems with **** divers destroying reefs and harassing animals, and what you guys are talking about is a long ways down the list if that's the scope of it.

I suppose I just take a harder line on it all, given the increasing problems we're seeing now that underwater photography is so accessible with action cams and phones and whatnot. I just recently saw stories about Tonga having to crack down on all the nonsense happening with divers/boats swarming humpback whales and disturbing their behavior. Obviously much greater impact than picking up a nudi, but I'm guessing a lot of those people getting right next to whales for insta selfies would gleefully touch/harass just about anything for their benefit. It's a spectrum. I try to do my part by not contributing anything to it, and try to correct bad behavior I see when I'm travelling (like DM's trying to impress guests by grabbing turtles or picking up critters off the bottom).

 

[bvanant]

When we were in Lembeh a while ago, there were a few pygmy seahorses sitting at about 85 feet. We went down to 70ft and watched boat after boat discharge 10 divers (all with cameras) to go shoot the pygmies. We calculated that these poor pygmies get shot nearly 1 million times/yr. It is a good thing that they can regenerate their retinas. I think that for many divers, watching dive guides move stuff around is also an issue. Guides get tips for setting up shots (remember the octopus in the sunball, after that came out guides were swimming octupus to the surface all the time). So to me at least there is a spectrum of behaviors from great to good to good enough to horrid and we have seen most of them. When we dive with a guide we try to get them to leave stuff mostly alone by explaining that BAD behavior might lead to a bad tip.
In any case, here locally in the cold water there is very little dive pressure on the sites that we visit and they are not coral but rocky reef so there is not too much worry about anchoring and stuff. Mostly we dive in MPAs as well so fishing is limited.

BVA