Sea Nettles!

[Gombessa]

I think this was the first time I've really seen them en masse, though 10 nettles probably doesn't scratch the surface of a real swarm. These things are hauntingly beautiful, with all the pulsing and streaming and we're-all-heading-in-the-same-direction action.

Probably one of those things that's awesome when there are few, and horrifying in great numbers

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[rmitchell248]

great video! If you had been at breakwater yesterday there were literally hundreds overhead at the Metridium fields! When you stop and look up there was not one opening where you could have ascended to the surface through the nettles! some of them were over 5' long and very large in diameter. It was amazing, luckily they stayed about 10' off the bottom so we had room to explore below them.

 

[Gombessa]

Well, all the nettles seemed to have been coming in from east to west, so it's possible that the ones we saw were a spearhead from the main Breakwater group Your description sounds fascinating, I'd love to have seen that (so long as I didn't have to ascend through them)! Hopefully someone has pictures they can share.

 

[ae3753]

Nice video, thanks for sharing.

 

[Brewski]

Sunday we bummed a ride with Larry and Carol, we dropped into literal swarm of sea nettles. while descending below them was no real problem, it made for an interesting safety stop on our return. normally I try to hole below the group of nettles until its time to surface, this time not possible they wer thick from 30 feet to the surface. and a lot of HUGE nettles at that.

 

[sarita75]

I nettles, but don't fancy their sting. My only complaint about the video was the lack of bunnies.

 

[mikemill]

/me twitches at the thought of Sea Nettles

My experience with the nettles was not as nice as Ron's. For some reason they really got to me when going back up.

 

[micboucher]

Great video Kenn, but I miss the bunnies too.

 

[mikeguerrero]

/me twitches at the thought of Sea Nettles

My experience with the nettles was not as nice as Ron's. For some reason they really got to me when going back up.

Mills,

Did you get stung by the nettles? Or did you just find them annoying to complete your dive?

 

[Gombessa]

Oh yeah, this was the first full Team Bunny dive in a while (since our boat trip in June in fact).

I've been trying to catch the buns on film 1) sleeping, 2) yawning or 3) stretching, but they're very wiley about what they show the camera. They'll be happy to know that they have fans though