Nelson Bay Pipe 2/12/2014 Morning dive

Branch stats (name, size, numbers)

Nelson Bay Pipe, 2/12/2014, water entered 05:56 hrs for 86 minutes, water temperature 20 degrees, visibility 7 metres.

Aphelodoris varia	35	7
Aplysia gigantea Bulbaeolidia alba	10	1
Bullina lineata	14	4
Ceratosoma amoenum	20	8
Ceratosoma brevicaudatum	45	2
Dendrodoris krusensternii	52	4
Doriprismatica atromarginata	45	1
Flabellina bicolor	28	2
Flabellina rubrolineata	19	9
Goniobranchus aureopurpureus	38	1
Hypselodoris bennetti	18	3
Polycera capensis	26	3
Pteraeolidia ianthina	20-190	13
Syphonota geographica	180	2
Unidentified aeolid	8	1

Photos

Not the best photo but quite interesting and it could be a rare document too. The bigger animal could be Bullina nobilis and the smaller one is certainly Bullina lineata. The co-existence is not a surprise but interbreeding could be.

Flabellina rubrolineata are extremely difficult to take a photograph of at the Seaway. The water is murky and almost always moving. The o-ring on my camera housing was like fresh after a dive in Nelson Bay while at the Seaway layers of sand have to be rinsed. In Nelson Bay most nudibranchs just seem to be on steroids and are bigger than their cousins from the North. 

Dendrodoris krusensternii - one of many but such a beautiful sea slug.

This might be a juvenile Blind shark. It checked me out and I was wondering if it was really harmless. It came to about 1 metre and we faced each other for a while before it swam back to mum. How cute!

This was the first Crested hornshark that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the current pushed me towards him and there was a big rockcod (Scorpionfish) to its better photographic side. But hey, this day felt like I was on display and fish would come and look.

The Swiss cheese nudibranch - that's the one without an ID for now.

Wobbegong shark carpeting the sponge garden.

The mother of the baby blind shark. It has a rosty fishing line sticking out of its gills. Hard to tell if it will make it and how much the line is a hindrance.

In my list this branch is a Flabellina bicolor but I am not totally sure if it is right. The oral tentacles look a bit different. Certainly a beautiful and also an active branch!