If its March in Avalon - it must be NudiMania!

[Mo2vation]

Every year DiveMatrix has their SoCal Dive-in in lovely Avalon on Catalina.

And every March, its a full on Nudi fest.

This year was no exception - with Nudi's all over the place. The Janolus were raging, the floppy-eared Hudson's were everywhere, the Red Tipped Dorids were bussing to and fro, and all of the usual suspects - Clowns, Fed Ex, Mexi's and McFarlands, Limbaugh's, Tri-Linny's, Rosies and even a flatworm were not to be missed.

It was NudiMania - here are some of the Nudis of Avalon shot at the DMX SoCal Dive-in a couple of weekends ago.


Enjoy.


---
Ken


On our first dive, at minute two I came across about my 3rd or 4th of these egg masses. I'm confident these are Janolus eggs, as there were Janolus in very close proximity every time we saw these.




Did somebody say Janolus? Yeah - there were just a few. They were coming out of our ears... Light Table Janolus series here: LINK




Here's a Janny on a stick. Just because I've never seen the bottom of a Janolus.




I've also never seen the bottom of a Limbaugh's. So I had Claudette pull out her backup mask, drop in a Lumbaugh's, go all Statue of Liberty with it and I fired off some shots of the bottom of a Nudi. Oh yeah - you'll be seeing more of these soon. Stay tuned.




Speaking of Nudi's on masks - just because we're silly. I NERP'ed (Nudibranch Emergency Relocation Program) a Hudson's onto Dette's mask at 85 feet. Just cuz. You can see the reflection of the Nudi in her eye!




More Hudson's? OK!!! Here is a shot of Hudson's making more Hudson's when they weren't stilt-walking at the Valiant






Limbaugh's also enjoy stilt-walking at the Valiant. We see them there every single dive.




While on the Valiant, Claudette found a McFarlands, looking all sock puppet-like as he was stretching for a meal. As we were leaving I found another beautiful McFarlands, just waiting for his close up.






Also on the Val - a Mexichromis reaches for his next foothold - or scratches his chin on something (yes, slugs have chins... duh.)




Of course, no trip to the Valiant is complete without seeing and shooting at least one Red Tipped Dorid (we saw bunches!)


.
.
.
.
.
.

 

[Mo2vation]

We move to the SueJac - it has its share of Nudis, you know! We start with the Fed Ex - always a crowd pleaser. In this shot, a Fed Ex is in the act of eating Hydroids. Dude has a mouth full of Hydriod for this shot. I was sitting and watching him munch and then grabbed the shot mid-chew!




Here's the same guy the next day - making a break for it. I like this shot because he's not ON the wreck. He's standing on his food, going from stalk to stalk. Life is good when you're purple.




Flatworms - I love 'em, I just never see them. Claudette is the flatworm whisperer. Last year on Chamber Day she found THREE. I don't know how she found this one - it was about half the size of a coffee bean.




Speaking of impossibly small - we dived the park for 3 days. We dived the SueJac several times, and never saw these half-rice kernel Tri Linnys. I saw their eggs on Sunday, and looked real closely through the fuzz at the swim-through - and there they were. How we missed them for the first two days I'll never know.




As we were leaving the SueJac, Claudette found this juvi Hopkins Rose. One of my fav Nudis. This guy was also very tiny. If you're wondering, yes - that is a fresh, hot, steaming pile of Cucumber poo he's standing on. Ew.


.
.
.
.
.
.
.