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 colours. Like the ones in the pictures. Sometimes they can be found in […]
Nothing wrong with 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 my wife Ivana’s palm. The other […]
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 metre 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 have done many dives there, yet I still haven’t seen a seahorse there yet. I saw a pipefish once or […]
When you ask about nudibranchs 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 nudibranchs crawling on brown weeds. They were everywhere, a couple of […]