Many people think corals live only in tropical seas. As far as I know they live in all seas. Tropical seas are famous for reef-building hard corals. In temperate and cold seas one can find very delicate soft corals in unusually vivid colors. Like the ones on the pictures. Sometimes they can be found in […]

Nothing wrong about having a big mouth 🙂 They are very curious, keen to taste unusual things … like a diver’s fingers or a snorkel. Some individuals even like to be touched gently. We have a funny story from years ago. We met two fish, one of them touched palm of my wife Ivana. The […]

I am not sure if this sea slug, clown nudibranch Ceratosoma amoenum, is common. Last summer we saw many of them on the rocks in very shallow water, perhaps less than one meter deep, in Maitai Bay in Northland. However, I don’t remember seeing them there in previous years. I used to see them regularly […]

There is a diving spot about an hour from my home. It is supposed to be a great place to meet seahorses. I saw pictures from my fellow divers proving the rumour was true. I did many dives there, yet I haven’t seen a seahorse there yet. I saw a pipefish once or twice, but […]

When you ask about nudibranches living in New Zealand, the usual answer mentions Dorises like black, lemon or gem, then clowns, perhaps Jasons and Tambjas. I was so surprised when I was diving in silty Mahurangi Harbour and found a flat reef with these nudibranches crawling on brown weeds. They were everywhere, a couple of […]