Saturday 26 March 2016

Goniobranchus daphne


Goniobranchus daphne

Goniobranchus daphne is a common nudibranch in my area. It is supposedly an endemic species, meaning that it only exists in or originates from Australia. Like the Blue-striped Octopus and the photo of the Crested Terns, this photo was also taken last week at some rockpools near Brisbane. That means that almost everyone can explore and find nudibranchs.


In one of many branch related articles, I wrote about different brancher types, people who explore nudibranchs and their more extended relatives: opisthobranchs. There is ample to learn about these animals without even coming close to the sea where they can be met anywhere, any habitat, any depth, in any size.

Actually, similar to how hobby archaeologists study satellite maps, hobby branchers can study publications. I can only tell everybody: you would not believe what you find and how relevant it is for research. Certainly a treasure for the historians amongst you and I am happy to give hints. If you have access to the ocean, you can explore the shoreline and shallow waters, e.g. rockpools. Some branchers take a dip either by snorkelling or scuba diving - both accommodating each for finding an overlapping but different set of nudibranchs. In my outlook, I let my fantasy play and predicted a branching assisted by robots. Last month, I realised that reality had almost overtaken me when I got an email from a start-up company developing affordable submersible vehicles for exploration.


What is so exciting about nudibranchs? In my opinion, pretty much everything! What is exciting about birds? What is exciting about nature and science? Whether we realise it or not: we are all involved and depend on them. Milk comes from cows not from stores! The ocean is quite a big and diverse habitat, lots of industries and nations directly or indirectly making a living from it. Nudibranchs are an important part of the marine ecosystem and closely linked to everyone's daily lives. Take them away, and hell would break loose (a bit trivial considering that some studies found that even parasites are beneficial e.g. in birds).

Nudibranchs normally don't move far and have a fast life cycle. When food is abundant and water conditions are right, populations pike. Beautiful equilibrium finding happens, nice regularities and correlations can be observed. That makes branchs perfect bio-indicators. Since they eat and metabolise chemically interesting organisms, such as sponges, hydroids etc. pharmaceutical companies and exploitative researchers have had high stakes in them for quite some time. Research on one opisthobranch group has directly led to a HIV drug. Another group is in close focus because of their solar energy harvesting.


There are many more examples on how opisthobranchs can inspire bio-mimetic processes. That means that by observing how branchs solve certain problems, science can adapt and imitate such processes and develop various applications mankind could benefit. Research on Opisthobranchs is being blocked or hindered in Queensland, left to people who prioritise other agendas. Funds are channeled into research that is hardly interested in their specific behaviours, traits and co- and inter-dependencies. Yet, the popularity of nudibranchs can hardly be stopped.

People travel across the globe to see such animals that don't exist back home. Australia and Queensland have a lot of nudibranch species that only exist here - endemics. It can be as easy as walking along the shore to spot them. As much as I would love to go on a safari in Africa, South America or elsewhere, Australia and Queensland maybe offer some gems that are yet to be discovered. Start before the big run sets in!

Friday 25 March 2016

Crested Tern


Daughter and mum
Daughter and mum
PDF Week 13/2016: Canon 7D, 400mm, 1/800, f7.1, ISO 100.

Last week, we had one of those rare days out - a day where I dared to take the camera with me. At the moment, my heart is out there in the ocean flatlands. It is time for migrating birds to think of heading North. It is autumn.
As you may know from David Attenborough movies, the tidal changes are a driving force for life forms and exciting stories that many of us know little about. Rockpools and shallow water are not always the barren uninhabited ecosystem that they appear to be. We might not see microorganisms, tiny plants and animals, but more visible crustaceans, molluscs, fish and other animals are witnessing their presence and a huge abundance of nutrients.
Birds belong to that ecological system. The find of the day was certainly the Blue-striped Octopus - a small animal with a deadly venomous bite. It doesn't seem an animal that many of my friends can or want to associate with. In one of the pools an Australian endemic nudibranch species, Goniobranchus daphne, moved around, unimpressed by the receding tide, the warming and drying pool. I wish I had my friend with me who - on all her exciting travels into exotic oceanic locations with professional guides and world leading photographers - has hardly seen any nudibranchs or - I assume - Blue striped Octopuses.

The picture I chose to present shows a juvenile Crested Tern working her mum to share some food. It was a cute scene. The juvenile had mixed with a flock of resting Silver Gulls, begging them discreetly for food. The mother joined quickly but moved on to a close-by rock. Obviously, it didn't take much convincing for the baby to follow. Everything happened just a few meters away from us. It was quite an intimate moment with the birds finding each other and showing that special maternal bond.
I love the photo because the beaks of the two are facing each other, building a connection. The mother is elevated on a pedestal and the juvenile sitting in the water. There was no harassing, only a silent begging and an alertness on what was going on around them. The two birds watch the camera and I am not sure if in this case I would have preferred for them to be focused and looking at each other in a less concealed way.
As always, I was tempted to crop the picture and to zoom in more. But somehow, I wanted to give the context of the rockpool with oyster covered boulders, the shallow pool and environment. My camera lens left a nasty glare in one important spot and professional equipment would also certainly have left a nicer bokeh. Does it matter or bother?
This short rockpool session produced so many memorable moments that it is impossible to share them all. I can certainly recommend exploring, taking some time and not expecting too much. Just be surprised when becoming a part of nature opens up stories and images that might follow you for a long time. A little bit of awareness and connection with nature will ensure for you to even enjoy and be excited about Blue-striped Octopuses.
Stay safe and enjoy!

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Blue ringed octopus

"Honey, can you come over here, please. You want to see this. Quick! I have found a deadly animal." In some rockpools near Brisbane, we were trying to spot some nudibranchs and other molluscs. It was a lovely day nearing its end. The tide was out exposing vast rocky oyster banks, leaving behind some shallow and warm salt water pools filled with sand and sea weed. A barefoot fisherman had just ravaged the marine national park, and locals were free roaming their poo congested dogs on the beach like every other fun filled day in that tourist location. Initially, I had mistaken the Blue Ringed Octopus as a crab but now it's identity was evident in all its glory next to me.

Blue-striped Octopus

Deadly venomous Blue ringed octopus

It was not a joke. I had spotted a Blue Ringed Octopus. It is as deadly to humans as it gets. The neurotoxins of the Blue ringed octopus is said to paralyse you completely within only 5 minutes. If envenomed - and with no antidote known or available - your breathing will soon stop, while you might be fully conscious, unable to move anything. The Blue Ringed Octopus is a silent killer. Its venom belongs to the most potent killers in the world. It is scary to read that one animal can kill two dozen people but even scarier to read hearsay facts without a source easily available that could confirm many of such venomous stories, comparisons and superlatives. Walking in shallow water gets a totally new perspective, if you are aware of such dangers lurking.

Australians love danger, don't they. They love adrenaline and good stories. But they are also quite protective of their health and the health of their children and tourists. Shush, we might build a pool fence around the ocean, charge a tourist levy for dipping feet into the ocean before we mine our national parks and recreation areas and kill that ...- what was that horrible animal called again? The Greenies might get one of those dog pee poles up with a sign that few people read, understand or follow in the first place: "Blue ring octopus sighted in this area".

The message is that Blue Ring Octopuses can be fatal. Most articles refer to the Blue Ring Octopus as a venomous animal. The deadly neurotoxin is normally applied via a bite injection. Strangely enough, I also found a confusing reference to this animal exerting its deadly properties via touch or ingestion. This notion might be introduced by comparing the power of their neurotoxin with the ones from dart frogs and puffer fish - both with poison highly effective via skin contact. Maybe someone can clarify.



Fall in love with blue iridescent rings

Let me tell you: there is not much to fear from this octopus - normally. Maybe we all need some reassurance and some slowly building exposure like I did with sea snakes or stone fish. You'll be right, mate, don't you worry! There was nothing alarming in my voice when I called my girl-friend over. It was more informing and alerting her to maybe approach with a bit of admirable anticipation and caution. Blue Ringed Octopuses won't attack. They will not kill for pleasure. It is normally a small animal, in our case hardly bigger than a walnut. How can that be a killing monster? There are almost none known fatalities - a witness of my believe that education is the key and answer to fear.

The poor animal was a bit stressed. That makes the blue rings show nicely. Most of us know that Octopuses can change their skin colour and texture. They are masters of mimicking. They can blend in perfectly to their background. They can even use their arms to form their bodies into shapes of other animals. This tiny individual not only looked like one of countless shells or crabs. It even moved in a similar fashion, walking on all arms, in the water and on the dry rocky surface. All heroism aside, I felt a bit nervous taking photos and movies, immersing my camera only a finger width from the deadly creature.

Please, find my video here:
http://www.goodpicturesonline.com/Branch-Buddies/Cephalapoda/Blue-striped-Octopus/i-RBk6Lr4



I'd like to be under the sea in an Octopus's garden in the shade (Beatles 1969)

All scuba divers, even PADI trained ones, (should) have heard or read about this animal. The information about their lurking danger are often accompanied with first aid tipps and marketing to - please - book the rescue diver package for a special price. There you will learn a lot - a lot actually that you should know before you call yourself an open water or advanced scuba diver. But after such courses, you might also forget quickly, that CPR might be your best friend when dealing with an octopus bite. Keep performing CPR even if the breathing does not seem to come back.

The octopus bite is as nasty as their characters are pleasant and peaceful, sometimes even playful (e.g. when they think it is funny to wrap themselves around your occy - the breathing piece colloquially named after them). I had seen hundreds of octopuses in the wild. I have seen them in all sizes and shapes. I have seen them fighting and in a deadly standoff with a huge crab. Some of my videos show them feeding on the bait fish attracted by my dive lights. In old times, when I was still diving with buddies, it became our impromptu task to retrieve a torch that the big octopus had stolen from my poking friend, strictly refusing to give it back and hurrying away in between rocks with it.

Well, octopuses are efficient, can move their arms perfectly coordinated, sometimes too fast for us to grasp what is happening. Under water they rather move by propulsion, emitting a jet of water behind themselves and slicing through the water like an arrow if need be, with what seems lightening speed. Through quite a big siphon they can also jet a distracting ink if they are in real distress and escape mode which I have hardly ever witnessed myself. But what could this tiny thing do to me? What it did was trying to hide. That's what octopuses do, blend in with the environment and hide in a crevice.

With its bigger cousins, it is easy to know where their lairs are. I often tried to leave the animals alone, pretended not to see them, making them proud of their camouflage skills! If I came too close they would visibly breathe through their big siphon, and by doing so, sometimes obscure my view of them and their hideout with the stirred up silt. I saw baby octopuses only a couple of centimeters long. But blue rings or stripes eluded me on them, until now. I started reasoning and find consolation in the thought that I might not have agitated the animals enough. My interactions with wild animals are normally quite passive and reactive.



The size of a walnut and with blue stripes - Hapalochaena fasciata

Finally, I managed to see and document a wild Blue Ringed Octopus. I assume it was my first one, as a matter of fact. What I actually found was probably a variety of it, namely the Blue Striped Octopus or Hapalochaena fasciata. Its body length was 14mm and like a hermit crab, the animal tried to hide its tentacles under its body as if they were legs. I assume many of the Australian distribution information is inaccurate or incomplete. Queenslanders love to make their sea a secret only allowed to be explored and exploited by the chosen ones. At least, I can confirm that Blue Striped Octopuses can be found in and around rockpools in Southeast Queensland.

Octopuses in my scuba area have a seasonal cycle. Their population goes from abundant to absent, from multi-generation to single individuals. They go, when their prey goes. They also vanish, when some keen hobby fishermen supplement their diet and commercial refrigerators with free food. Their venomous fangs - and most octopus species have them - might not help them against dolphins and other predators either, let alone habitat destruction. Hopefully, nobody will have the genius and dangerous idea to BBQ the Blue ring Octopuses and try to eat and prepare them like Fugu, the pufferfish containing the same neurotoxin.

Theoretically however, the blue ring octopus should be safe as long as people like me are not stirring politicians and a public keen on any form of sensationalism and prone to the eradication remedy too quickly. So, I can't wait to take some more video footage and photos. Maybe some people will appreciate to see those creatures and learn about them.



Precious rings

If anything, our marine environment should provide all the 'oh's and 'ah's' we hear from children. Our seas are not the dangerous hell, nor the nemo heaven. There are dangers that we need to manage as if we were driving our cars to work. Always drive with a buddy (oh no, that only applies to scuba divers who are scared of what they are doing), don't touch anything and if there is an accident remember DRS ABCD while singing "jingle bells" (and giving Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) until help arrives.

By the way, Octopuses are molluscs, just like nudibranchs and they have a common ancestor. Even if these traits may have evolved separately at different times, little does it surprise that a few branchs are using that very same iridescent blue and even rings to signal to potential predators and harassers: please avoid me and don't think of tasting or touching me. Some taxonomists may be taking that as an excuse to block branch research in Queensland.

There are so many good stories around the Blue ringed Octopus that I suggest for everyone to google this animal. One story being told consistently matches the 'precious rings' theme. I am not a supporter of marriage, find it strange that society is so interested in protecting its sanctity and other more profane properties, such as taxablity, denial of natural rights and perpetuation of gender discrimination and hawking of strange sexual projections and outdated paradigms. The male Blue ringed Octopus doesn't seem to waste much time in caring about gender. Unlike nudibranchs and other molluscs (that are hermaphrodites, having both sexes) they still resort to having offspring in female-male sexual partnerships though.

Last but not least, when an octopus meets a mate, don't be wusses call them Octopuses!

Enjoy, share and like. Life happens in social media! But beyond that there is also an ocean and a real life to discover, share and like.

Friday 18 March 2016

Bees in Australia

Sugarbag Bee - Tetragonula carbonaria or Trigona carbonaria

Did you know that there are more than 1500 different bee species in Australia? What an amazing diversity! I knew that there were quite a few native species, was actually proud to have photographed half a dozen different species so far. But this high number really amazes me. A long way to go for my bee documentation.
Since I have some friends overseas who are interested in bees, I thought I should share. I miss the European Bumble Bees but doubt that the old world has anywhere near as many bee species as Down under. Maybe someone knows?
The Sugarbag bees not only have a cute name. It is also quite a stunning animal. It is about the size of a small lady bird beetle. They are little quirky things, more reminding of some busy bug that I associate with a nasty bloodsucking bite. However, this is one of the many stingless bees in Australia.
They do collect honey that tastes fine. From what I read, Aborigines used to do some honey harvesting from this species and you can even buy it by the hive. Certainly fun to keep some bees, certainly involved with a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork that is not quite as stingless (https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/62512/Guidelines-for-keeping-bees-in-Queensland.pdf).
The photo was taken in our garden on a flowering Calistemon tree. These bees have an interesting technique to collect the pollen. They seem to wrap themselves around one or two filaments or other parts of the plant to stabilise themselves. It looks like they are on their backs, nibbling for a few milliseconds on the anthers before they fly the the next one.
It is easy to see where they got their name from. They store the collected pollen in a bag. Unlike normal European sugar bees, they carry that bag not close to their bodies but on their lower legs. I assume that helps their collection technique. It also might help their egos and make them look more voluminous than they are.

Neon Cuckoo Bee

Blue banded Bee
Meterbox Carder Bee

Have a look at the other bee species on my Good Pictures Online website. This morning, I uploaded an invasive species from South Africa, the Meterbox Carder Bee. The Neon Cuckoo Bee and the Blue Banded Bees are all common visitors here, enjoying our flowering basil at the moment.
And there are lots of nervous 2mm bee-like insects hanging around. They will be almost impossible to catch on camera in full focus and decent quality. I tried but all I almost caught was a sunburn. We all need challenges, don't we!
Enjoy!