Nudibranchs

We have been in Chamela over a week now. A big reason for staying here so long has been hooking up with a new friend who is crewing on a boat with a dive compressor. Kris is here alone for a month while the owner-skipper attends to business elsewhere. He needed a dive buddy and someone to help him move the compressor in and out of the boat, so it has been a symbiotic relationship.

(photo copyright Kris Scanlon-Hill, 2011)
We've been diving the nearby point, and several of the islands across the bay from us. While we've only expanded our fish species list by one or two, we've learned to spot nudibranchs. We've only found two species so far. I have identified one species as Elysia diomedea, with the help of nudipixel.net The cool thing about this species is that it eats algae, and retains living chloroplasts in its own tissue. So is it a plant or an animal, or both?

(photo copyright Kris Scanlon-Hill, 2011)
Kris identified the other species as Chromodoris marislae, also using Nudipixel.net.

(photo copyright Kris Scanlon-Hill, 2011)
Beside nudibranchs, we've spotted a lot of eels: zebra and green morays, sharptails, and a few other species. We've also seen numerous octopi. A real treat yesterday was hearing a continual background conversation among a nearby pod of humpback whales.

Out of the water, we've enjoyed socializing with Kris, and our friends Adam and Cindi on Bravo, and their guests Carol and Glenn. We all had dinner on board Kris's boat the other night, as a beautiful full moon rose over the Jalisco coastal mountains.