Fiordland Marine (Te Moana o Atawhenua) Reserves
Snorkelling, took a random pic of "probably just a poo" to see later it's got rhinophores. What is it????
Larval mantis shrimp found in plankton haul above seagrass beds on Tiri Island.
A new one for me. This is the red rhinophore Janolus seen at the Poor Knights by Ian Skipworth (https://ianskipworth.com/photo/d90uw/d901442/DSC_3017.jpg).
Diving at night really brings out some amazing Nudibranchs.
~1.5 cm long
~6 m subtidal
1 of 4 or 5 individuals checking me out while spearfishing at cheese and onion rocks, Makara.
Blue Hochstetter Frog found in an old gold mine tunnel
Sampled by benthic Blake trawl (350 m) in the Gerlache Strait.
found in 8m in Cavalli Islands
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Extraordinarily well camouflaged caterpillar sitting in the middle of a flower on a Rata x Pohutukawa hybrid.
Was very small, and lived among the gaps between mussels.
This is (my best guess) ID for the fish.
Out on the sand. Paradoris dubia?
He killed the other sparrow
Length c. 70 cm TL.
Observation and images courtesy of Lewis Turnbull.
Observation and images copyright Lewis Turnbull.
The photos are very heavily cropped to try and show detail in the fish.
The bird is Egretta novaehollandiae ssp. novaehollandiae (White-faced Heron), uploaded to https://inaturalist.nz/observations/139202326
These tiny creeping jellyfish were collected in a plankton net thrown from a rocky shore and dragged in over some seaweed, where they had been living. Photographed under a microscope, the larger bell was 0.7-0.8 mm diameter. These micro-medusae live on intertidal seaweed in the surf zone and creep around on their multiple tentacle "legs".
They reproduce asexually by budding off new individuals from the central disk - note about six developing buds on the bigger specimen, with the top two now recognizable as nearly-ready to be freed new jellyfish. The central disk was a tannish golden color, with red eyespots.
Very happy to find this one. Was just at the edge of a random overhang quite deep.
Interesting that it was almost exactly a year ago these were last seen around here.
~1cm long
~3m subtidal
On mid tide shaded rocks.
Look who it is!
Found this time in a place I thought it might be, some bushy red algae.
~8mm long
~0.5m subtidal
Getting confused with the descriptions of these species. Limnichthys? Tewara? @clinton?
Now this was a bit of a surprise.
Swam out when I lifted a rock. It then tucked into a space nearby. Very weird things. Habitat shot last. That's the spot he was in before I flipped the rock.
~4cm long
Lower intertidal.
I assume this is a juvenile stargazer. I came across it along the high water mark. Still alive. So I returned it to the sea.
Variable triple fin eating a blue-eyed triple fin.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/107387471 apparenlty, though really doesn't look much like most of them
Big one hiding in a massive sponge.
~10cm long
~3m subtidal
Edit: I went back almost six months later and it is still there in the exact same spot. 29/09/22
Shark 2 F (Crew sighted female). Hanging out with Shark 1 sighted as male
With eggs. Under a rock at approx. -1m.
See here: http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5822
Tiny orange fishes in the left in front of the purple blob
Matches the species description provided here. Seeing as all specimens of this species were collected from Kaikoura, I'd be interested in knowing if the original paper (which I don't have access to) discusses the possibility of a wider distribution.
Clearly differed from C. sirena by its pattern and smaller number of marginal eyes, also much smaller in size. Under a rock at approx. 1m depth.
Size: ~80mm
Location: Low tide, Bull creek scenic reserve near Dunedin
Common in bottles/cans. 2022 Ghost Diving Annual Harbour Cleanup.
Living on subtidal rock wall in an overhang.
In Lessonia.
~5cm long
<1m Depth
Hiding in Lessonia.
~4cm long
<1m Depth
At the base of the wharf piles, around 2m below low tide.
Herpetological survey with Mr Knox. 5 individuals shown. Alpine rock systems.
Cool to find these again, and now I know where they live. There were lots of them in the upper intertidal area of the rocks, this was around high tide. Habitat shots last.
~3-5mm long
<1m depth
This was a surprise. Two shy individuals within a rock. One larger than the other.
Tasmanian blenny?
I estimate ~5cm long
~1.5m depth
6 orca in the estuary feeding at low tide
between gobies, glass gobies and shrimp
Spotted floating in the water.
~2mm long
In a shallow rock pool, close to the water line at low tide, pabout 5cm long.
dried dead gecko blown by wind and caught in between two rocks. freeeeaaaakkkkyyyy!
Found at about 2p.m., in a rock pool/crevice, at the kaikoura seal colony, in a part that was in shadow, and then on the shadier side of the crevice too. Was awake and moving about.
Have since read they are nocturnal, and did wonder when it was in all that shade.
post-larval "puerulus" stage, P1,P2,P3 and P4 stages
Larvae? Observed eating off of Turritposis.
About 10mm across.
I have added 2 more photos showing the transdifferentiation process going on in the gonads of the jellyfish. You can see polyps growing which will eventually develop into mature medusae.
So Turritopsis rubra is another immortal jellyfish species it would seem.
The 3rd picture is of one I accidentally squashed when handling. The polyps are clearly seen.