Nudibranch laying eggs on Up-side-down Jelly

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Click below to watch the video:

All week I had been thinking about super macro video. I practiced dslr video settings shooting birds during the week I thought I was pretty mush ready to take the camera underwater. All I needed was to remember the tripod and an extra sola light. But ooops I got distracted in other proyects and I didn’t load my truck and forgot half of my gear. Once again my scuba shop hooked me up and saved my dive. My plan was to find any subject and get it sharp and with good lighting on video. So I split from the group and started in the algie area in front of the playground. Nothing there but when I was moving on I found a very curious Orange Pipefish hiding in the caleurpa in sandy area. I moved on west, I thought…. And I saw a think string coming out of an Up-side-Jelly. I looked closer and it looked like Nudibranch eggs. It was huge but I couldn’t see it. It was busy manching on the inside of the Jelly. Wow. I found a jelly fish with a nudi laying eggs in it. By myself! Scooore! The nudi is: Dondice parguerensis. Where are the girls? I thought to take some video and then to look for their flags and bring them over. Well the plan didn’t work like that. The video lights scared the jelly and it went swimming up to the surface I started ascending with it and the propeller of a big boat went by like 10 ft next to me. Shut! I was in the danger zone. I was right under the boat channel because on my way back I passed the dip. I took my eyes off the jelly and lost it. I could not show it to the girls anymore and I didn’t have a good photo. Bum. My battery was running low so I headed north to get out of there. Then I run into our group circle-ling around each other. They found something. Woot woot. Linda was on it but I was keeping my distance way away from her. When she approached I showed her my subject on my LCD and surprised she asked me where. I signaled the whole story to her. Then she let me know that they got it. Woooooo!!! That was awesome. What are the chances of that! Linda also showed me a pretty seahare and moved on. I tried to video it but the surge was unreal. Never had that kind of surge at our bridge before. So I moved on to the jelly and I tried to shoot a better pol video and got out. I was cold.

Log 682 16 ft 121 min 14 lbs on BC plus 4 more on tank strap. 80 AL 55mm Bali + lavacore hodie and gloves 73oF 1000 psi still on bottle

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Photos

Nudibranch laying eggs on Up-side-down Jelly
Photographer: Steven Kovacs

Orange Pipefish with red coloration around the eyes
I love the colors on this guy