This is a shot in the dark. My dive buddies and I saw quite a few new things yesterday at breakwater.
The Vis was pretty good for how wavy it was; about 10ft. Lots of surface chop though.
We saw plenty of things being eaten. Got a lovely site of a dendronotis helping itself to a second anemone, and a red octopus that was stuffed down a worm hole (it was already dead).
However there were three things that stuck out to us that we need help ID-ing.
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on this dive so I'm going to do my best at describing them.
The first is a juvenile rockfish we found inside the cannon. It had the body type similar to an adult Quillback Rockfish.
Rounded face, dorsal spines very erect. The only exception was it was about the size of your thumbnail and all black except for some fluorescent blue patches around it's dorsal fin. I had my light shining on it, so I know the color was right on.
The second thing was a flat "furry worm" I couldn't tell if it was furry or if it's legs made it look so. It kinda looked like a furry centipede. Translucent white, except for some bright orange running down it's "spine". It was beginning to dig in near an anemone.
Roughly 6cm in length and 0.5cm in width.
Could it be some sort of polychaete worm?
The third thing was what looked like a white caterpillar with black tiny spots running down either side. It was rounded. I didn't get a good look at it's head because it was being devoured on either side by some shrimp. (There were plenty of hermit crabs and snails joining the feast as well).
This one has us really stumped because we've never seen or heard of any marine animal that looked anything like this. It look almost as if the worm belonged at the surface. The only thing that makes me think it belonged there was it was moving and doing that classic "marine twitch" right before it's head was chewed off.
Shrimp scare me now.
Any suggestions for an ID for any of the three would be helpful. Thanks!
The Vis was pretty good for how wavy it was; about 10ft. Lots of surface chop though.
We saw plenty of things being eaten. Got a lovely site of a dendronotis helping itself to a second anemone, and a red octopus that was stuffed down a worm hole (it was already dead).
However there were three things that stuck out to us that we need help ID-ing.
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on this dive so I'm going to do my best at describing them.
The first is a juvenile rockfish we found inside the cannon. It had the body type similar to an adult Quillback Rockfish.
Rounded face, dorsal spines very erect. The only exception was it was about the size of your thumbnail and all black except for some fluorescent blue patches around it's dorsal fin. I had my light shining on it, so I know the color was right on.
The second thing was a flat "furry worm" I couldn't tell if it was furry or if it's legs made it look so. It kinda looked like a furry centipede. Translucent white, except for some bright orange running down it's "spine". It was beginning to dig in near an anemone.
Roughly 6cm in length and 0.5cm in width.
Could it be some sort of polychaete worm?
The third thing was what looked like a white caterpillar with black tiny spots running down either side. It was rounded. I didn't get a good look at it's head because it was being devoured on either side by some shrimp. (There were plenty of hermit crabs and snails joining the feast as well).
This one has us really stumped because we've never seen or heard of any marine animal that looked anything like this. It look almost as if the worm belonged at the surface. The only thing that makes me think it belonged there was it was moving and doing that classic "marine twitch" right before it's head was chewed off.
Shrimp scare me now.
Any suggestions for an ID for any of the three would be helpful. Thanks!
