The “Smalls”: The Teeniest, Tiniest Sea Slugs In California

Guest post by Robin Agarwal This is the fourth post in our Sea Slug of the Month series. Find tips for spotting nudibranchs from the comfort of your local dock at the end of this post! So you’ve been tidepooling along your local reefs and you’ve found a few nudibranchs: Opalescents, Sea Lemons, Spanish Shawls, Hopkins’s Rose, Triophas. Maybe you’ve practically tripped over ginormous squishy Sea Hares. Boring, right? What a snooze, all those flamboyant colors, shapes, and bizarre anatomy. After all, those nudibranchs are over an inch long, and therefore way too easy to find. If this is …

Sea Slug of the Month – Yellow Blobs of Awesomeness, Guest Post by Robin Agarwal

August 9, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program a nudibranch mom anudibranchmom California tidepool central coast dorid guest post nudibranch Robin Agarwal sea slug sea slug of the month seaslug tidepool wildlife spotlight Guest post Sea Slug of the Month Wildlife spotlight

Yellow Blobs of Awesomeness: Sea Goddesses, Sea Lemons and That One with the Tentacles Guest post by Robin Agarwal Humans like sea slugs. They’re harmless to humans, but voracious predators if you’re a hydroid or a sponge. They come in a variety of cool shapes and sizes, and have fascinating life histories that allow one to throw around words like ‘nudi’ and ‘hermaphrodite’ with impunity in mixed company. But best of all, nudibranchs appeal mightily to humans’ attraction to pattern and color. We cannot resist taking a closer look at something bright and colorful as we explore …

Sea Slug of the Month – Morro Bay’s ‘Gateway Nudi:’ Opalescent Nudibranch, Guest Post by Robin Agarwal

July 12, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program a nudibranch mom Ángel Valdés anudibranchmom Austin L. Ka’ala Estores-Pacheco Hermissenda Hermissenda crassicornis Hermissenda opalescens iNaturalist nudibranch Robin Agarwal sea slug sea slug of the month seaslug Blog Posts Guest post Sea Slug of the Month Wildlife spotlight

Three Opalescent Nudibranchs (Hermissenda opalescens). Photograph courtesy of Robin Agarwal via Flickr Creative Commons License

“Whoaaaa…what is THAT?” “It’s gorgeous, whatever it is.” “It’s moving!” “Dude, check this out!” “So BLUE!” “What IS it?” Music to a science educator’s ears, of course, thanks to the astonishing colors and reasonably viewable size of one of California’s most iconic sea slug species, the Opalescent Nudibranch (Hermissenda opalescens). Found throughout the Central California coast, these brightly-colored carnivores are often the first nudibranchs to astonish and delight the humans venturing into their intertidal world during seasonal low tides. Photograph of Opalescent nudibranch, (Hermissenda opalescens) taken in Monterey, California. Courtesy of Robin Agarwal, under Creative Commons license via …