This photo was taken last Saturday. I was very excited by the cute blob creature, even though I had no idea what it was (beyond being a nudibranch), because I’d never seen one before. Ross was kind of underwhelmed… he looked at it swum away, came back, took this pic of me and then hung in the water waiting for me to finish. After the dive, Martina who was also diving at the same site, was excited to hear that we’d seen one as she had been looking out for one for ages.
Yesterday I emailed the photo to Wendy, the Reefwatch Victoria coordinator at the Melbourne Museum, to try and get an ID. This is the response I got:
“This is very exciting Nicola. Bursatella leachii is the name of your hairy sea hare. It is has not been recorded in Victoria – origins are South Australia and Western Australia. It is common in South Australia where it is collected for medical research. If possible, would you be able to collect it for Bob Burn who is a Research Associate here at the Museum.He is working on an Atlas of Opisthobranchs. He happened to be here today and was very excited by your photograph as there is no Victorian record of the species in the collection. Liz can bring you some ethanol in a jar tonight (at the pub) if you don’t have access to it. “
I saw Liz later that evening and she said that everyone at the museuem was much excited by it. So NYAH! I was right to take twenty shots of the little hairy blob!