20 Different Nudibranchs On One Dive in Maui

Unidentified Discodorid #9

   I talk to other scuba divers here on Maui and they've seen a couple different kinds of nudibranchs, maybe a dozen. Dive masters leading trips every day may have seen twenty or so over their years here. Heidi, Felipe, and I just found twenty nudibranch species...in one dive! Who says you have to go to Indonesia or the Philippines to go muck diving for the strange and rare?

Aldisa pikoko

Some of the more common species of nudibranchs made appearances like the trembling, imperial, snow goddess and spanish dancer. We had a couple of new species spotted on this dive as well. It is easy to see from the pictures why we search out these sea slugs. There is just nothing else out there quite like them.

Catriona sp.1

And I feel like despite their best efforts at being brightly colored and wildly patterned they still are not seen by many divers due to their small size, lack of fast motion, and the brightly colored sponges and coral that also dot the reef.

Plocamopherus ceylonicus

Tambja morosa

Platydoris sp.#2

When we find nudibranchs that we have never seen before we often have to scour the online seaslugs of hawaii database. A few of my pictures have been featured on the site, however we have yet to find a new nudibranch. I feel its just a matter of time before we discover a new species if we keep up our searching.