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A most interesting relationship between species. The Marine Detective observations bring awareness to our marine environment.The life and times of Giant Nudibranchs (and Tube-Dwelling Anemones). With coincidence, I had posted about Giant Nudibranchs yesterday and then went diving and had this great photo opportunity. The Giant Nudibranch was crawling away from where it had laid its fertilized eggs on its prey (note that there are thousands of developing embryos in that egg mass). It's what nudibranchs do. They most often lay their eggs right atop their prey. When you consider that the egg masses / ribbons of every nudibranch species look different, this is a REALLY valuable clue in trying to solve whodunnits for nudibranch eggs. If you know their prey, you have a good chance of knowing whose eggs you are looking at.
The other species in the lower photo is another giant - the Giant Sea Cucumber - Parastichopus californicus to 50 cm long.
Please know as you reflect on the ocean off our coast, that where there is sand, these species are common and living out their lives while many of us do not even know about them. This was only at ~6 m depth.
If you've not seen it already, here's the link to my blog showing the stunning diversity of colour in Giant Nudibranchs, how the swim and, how they POUNCE on their prey.
themarinedetective.com/2010/03/28/whos-eating-who
©2020 Jackie Hildering; The Marine Detective
May 31, 2020, Telegraph Cove.Strange, wonderful things are everywhere! Botany group member Joy Dawson found and photographed these yellow and purple Vancouver groundcones in the Comox Lake area. Groundcone is a "root parasite" on salal, kinnickinnick and other members of the heather family.
An interesting study provides insights into air pollution
Sooty Bird Bellies Yield Insights into Historical Air Pollution - Eos
eos.org
A new study mined museum collections to investigate just how sooty the air in the United States has been for the past 135 years.