Gem nudibranches (Gem doris, Dendrodoris gemmacea, D. denisoni) look like real living gems. Yet they don’t live in warm clear tropical seas, they are happy with temperate, quite often murky waters. If you live in Auckland, you don’t have to travel far away. Actually you don’t have to travel at all. I usually observe and […]
When I prepare my gear before a dive people often ask me if there is “something” underwater there on the spot. Sometimes I pretend I don’t understand and ask what they mean. They usually mean “something to eat”, a “big fish” or “snapper” (that’s a favourite one) … something suitable for dinner. I cannot see just […]
So much fun with these tiny guys. There are plenty of them in the weed stacks and the submerged railings around the Ti Point Wharf. They are very curious, when I try to photograph them they tend to approach my camera and crawl its housing and lens port. The picture above would benefit from a […]
Kelp forests of Southern Pacific have their smiling face. It’s Eastern Kelpfish Chironemus marmoratus hiding in the shadows of the forest in shallow water. The fish is a bottom dweller, it’s heavier than water, it often sits on the bottom or kelp “leaves”. I usually notice slight movement at the edge of my field of […]
Tiny translucent shrimps (Palaemon affinis) were marching there and back on the submerged railings of Ti Point Wharf at high tide. They looked like alien warriors on vacations … not worried, not getting ready to battle, without any obligations except one … to find something for lunch. Keywords: shrimp shrimps translucent crustacean crustaceans common shrimp […]
Mahurangi Harbour does not look attractive to divers, actually, I don’t know anybody who dives there. When I talk to local divers they usually recommend to get to either Te Haupa Island or better Motuora Island. They are right, if somebody wants to hunt / collect sea food the harbour is not the place … […]