Spanish Dancer in Flight: Hawaii Night Dive
It was a beautiful day on the South shore of Maui and the visibility reports were coming in positive all day so Heidi and I came up with the plan for a night dive at Makena Landing. It turned out to be more than we could imagine, with photo opportunities around every turn. Our first big find was my first adult Spanish dancer nudibranch. Our underwater lights lit up so many shades of red, orange, and pink along its sinuous body. I had seen juvenile spanish dancers in shallow tidepools at night before but never this giant. Spanish dancers can grow to a foot in length, making it the largest nudibranch in the world. Usually I have to strain my eyes to focus on tiny nudibranchs much smaller than a finger. Often we come across spanish dancer egg cases which look like velvet roses attached to the rock. These nudibranchs have something in common with spanish shawl nudibranchs which I often found in the waters off California. They are able to swim and cover vast...