IIt has been a long time since I thought about Nudibranchs, not to mention one monitoring. But for some time, as a university student at the University of Glasgow, I spent hours underwater, swimming in the forests of the sea grass, coral reefs, ships, and searching for small colored creatures.
Dive on the western coast of Scotland is amazing for all the reasons that you may expect: the drama of carrots and bays and promoting the marine lake against mountains and rugged rocky and brutal beaches.
I still remember excitement on diving trips, in a car full of air tanks and weight belts. From the bustle of the Great Western Road, in the past Dumbarton, above the A82 where the LOCH Lomond side embraces, to Gareloch, Loch Long or Averfield, to the left in Arocchar, through the rest and be grateful, to Loch Fyne. Underwater, the lake is filled with beauty, with bright coral reefs, Dead-Man fingers, sea pens, scalab, dance along the sea floor, spinal cookie and spider-spider.
In the terrible weather, however, a common occurrence, a volatile lake is a challenge to vision. Dark sky flattens the colors of coral reefs and their senses to different shades of brown color.
Therefore, when, I studied as it should be searched by a marine diver and biology colleague, I monitored the first Nudiarran, or the alloy of the sea, I was even exposed -. It was small, barely 2 cm in length, but it served a wonderful splash of eggs and orange against the brown seascape, which is full of vitality with almost fluorescent stains, and grazed on seaweed. He has been removed so far from his cousin, who is very beautiful, like the jewel of the sea.
The biologist was writing a doctorate degree on Nudibranchs, and for the summer, we were divers who were ready, as he embraced his project happily, who felt as if looking for butterflies or bright colors. They are the lowest shells, and their name means “naked gills”, referring to the breathing system outside their bodies.
Mostly meat, feed on seaweed, sponge, engineering, guns, Numan and other effects. Most are minimal, between 1 cm and 6 cm, but many purple blue and blues to orange, really protruding. My favorite was semi -transparent, with cerata growth, and the growth -like growth full of bright orange. When Nudibranch eats the claws of the jellyfish or another harsh animal, the bite cells filled with poison passes through CERATA, or growth, which they use against predators.
In that summer, we were sliding back from small rubber in the deep waters below to reach the coral reefs that could not be reached, or pronounced diving in the beaches that the rain lacks on diving in search of them. We found nine types in all and we were rewarded by calling them in a study published by the Zoology Department: Divers Directory to Marine Animals in the Claide region.
I do not know how their population increases in the climate crisis and biological diversity, but for me, they invoke the joy of the world of the sea.
Invertebrates for 2025
The Guardian asks readers to nominate species in the second annual invertebrate competition for the year. Read more about that and make your suggestions here or via the form below.