Weybourne July 06


Sadly this was likely to be our last trip on Buzo, but to one of our very favourite spots. The place we made our first sea dives. I hope the salt water virgins enjoyed it as much as they appeared to, its a great place. The weekend was chosen for its long slacks* and although the dives were short they gave a taste of the area, and the wildlife was maybe even denser than last year.

We saw a good crop of slugs although I don't have a picture of the best, Janolus Cristata, as we didn't see those until the last drift when I went camera** free to savour my last drift from Buzo without distractions from the nostalgia. I look forward to seeing the other pictures from the day too.

*Insert trouser joke here! **Thanks very much to Craig for the loan of his camera.

These elegant anemones are less showy than the big plumose types which cover the Rosalie
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A velvet swimming crab... always ready for a fight
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What lovely eyes... and maybe that's a smile?
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There were lots of decorator crabs... mostly sponge covered
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The Dahlia anemones are the most colourful on display (in fact this may not be a Dahlia but the differences are subtle, any corrections?)
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Another kind of more spidery decorator crab, waiting for a meal to swim by
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A squat lobster on hornrack
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A flabellina pedata nudibranch getting stuck into some hydroids
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A subtle shrimp hiding down a hole
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A edible crab, on a tasty bed of hornrack
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A pink shrimp blushes...
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A common lobster, innit? No joking with this chap... look at that complicated mouth!
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A squattie coming out to play
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I've never seen so many spidery decorator crabs
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A flabellina pedata, snacking on hydroids
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Here you can see this awesome predator devouring its prey... imagine packs of these roaming the Serengeti!
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Two crabs in different sponge outfits
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A snake pipefish, there were half a dozen around one on the lobster pots on our drift
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Nowhere has lobsters like Norfolk... as far as I've seen
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No obviously not!
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Feeding frenzy!
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We hadn't seen these Goniodoris Nodosa slugs before, smaller and less colourful than the other types
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Fluffy and delicate, Dawn is looking at a pair of fanworms :-)
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Fanworms, minus Dawn
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Like a large Flabellina, this is a Facelina Auriculata (probably) cool eh?
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See the Flabellinas are different, uniform colour, less clearly grouped sterata (back tentacles), purple etc
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Nudibranch eggs (the white bits) a sure sign they are nearby
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No one on the beach (aside from the divers waiting to go in) ever believes how much grows on the wreck
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There were a good shoal of Bibb on the wreck, apparently they taste foul, the numerous fishermen on the beach were after mackerel.
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The plumose anemones on the Rosalie are its signature feature... not many dead mans fingers this year.
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A pair of probable Facelina Bostoniensis nudibranches getting it on... slow slug porn!
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A clearer view of a single Facelina Bostoniensis nudibranch
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Everybody Conger (eel)!
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Hermit crab hunting on the fringes of the Rosalie
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Rob Spray.