Another day, another suite of unusual species. Adding to our list from the last two days, we found two species of nudibranch that we haven’t seen before. Along with more pygmy squid and many juvenile pipefish. Much of this was in less than 1.5m depth quite close to the Scout Hut boat ramp.
The two species of nudibranch (below) are: first two images, a Cratena sp. and last two images, a Pelagella sp. Both were about half a centimetre long.
Stegosaur Skeleton Shrimp
Probably the find of the day, however, was the amazing Stegosaur Skeleton Shrimp! What an incredible animal. There are only 23 records in the Atlas of Living Australia and none on iNaturalist. It’s strange enough to appear on the back cover of Kuiter’s Marine Fauna of Port Phillip Bay which he describes as ‘an amazing example of nature’s amazing designs’. It’s another one of those mythical creatures of the Great Southern Reef and is reputedly found to 200m depth. Here it was only in a metre.
The rest of the swim was nice. It’s pretty in this area. There is an abundance of plankon-eating hulafish.
