Honorable Mention Nudibranch
Mayumi Takeuchi-Ebbins
“Ghost in the Sea“
The Story: This is a hooded nudibranch (Melibe leonine) which is a very typical cold water nudibranch in Alaska. This nudibranch is found on the Pacific coast of North America and can only be found from Seattle to Alaska.
It was raining heavily for whole week while I was staying in Alaska and there was no activities in bad weather. So one day I decided to jump into the water in front of the lodge by snorkelling to find something under the water and I found this swimming nudibranch.There were lots of this nudibranch on the sea grasses and sea weeds and lots of them were swimming in the water. There was not much visibility and it was very dark without sun. The heavy rain caused sea water and fresh water to mixed at shallow depths.
I tried to find some nudibranchs that were swimming slowly and possibility to get a shot from the front. But the conditions and this subject were very challenging.
They swam quite fast and were undulating all the time. I spent more than 2 hours with this subject while snorkelling.
Location: Gulf of Alaska,USA
Equipment Used: Nikon D5 Camera, Nauticam Housing,Nikkor Macro 60mm Lens, Dual Retra Pro Strobes
Camera Settings: ISO 160, F14, 1/60 sec
