Good evening, everyone!
We've heard that the Somei Yoshino cherry trees have started blooming in Tokyo, and these days spring feels close at hand.
The morning was fairly mild, but things turned around after noon! We even got small hail here on Sado Island.
Today, for the first time in a long while, we did a boat dive at Kitakoura!
As far as I remember, our last boat dive was at Underwater Christmas (November 11), so this was our first time at Akaiwa, the artificial reef, and Nagate in four months.
It was a dive that felt incredibly fresh, mixed with a bit of nervousness.
As for the sea, the water temperature was unchanged at 9 to 10℃ even offshore. With the recent rain and snowmelt starting to flow in, we were worried about the spring cloudiness, but it wasn't that murky, and visibility was around 10 to 15 m, no problem at all.
How murky will it get this year from here on... It's a time of year nothing can be done about, so we'll just have to endure it.
As a Sado diver, I'm very concerned about how “Benkei” the kobudai (Asian sheepshead wrasse) is doing, but we didn't see him at all today. At Akaiwa, we saw one unfamiliar male and several females.
It's not unusual for Benkei not to show up at Akaiwa at this time of year (he seems to wander in search of food), but he looked quite worn out the last time we saw him, so I'm really worried about whether he's still alive.
I really hope he's made it safely through this winter too...
The villain faced kobudai that has been living at the artificial reef since about two years ago is still going strong this year, and today it was hanging around the divers again, round and round...
I almost wish this one would move to Akaiwa, haha.
Other than that, baby dangouo (a tiny lumpsucker) have finally started to appear!
Their angel's halo, and those cute little wiggling tail fins
So soothing.
Aeolid (mino) nudibranchs have become quite numerous as well.
Today, the ones we noticed most were sakura mino umiushi, futairo mino umiushi, akaera mino umiushi, emura mino umiushi, and inaba mino umiushi, among others.
We're now heading into the season with the most nudibranchs of the year.
Bundle up well against the cold and enjoy nudibranch paradise!
Here are the sea conditions.
Dive date: March 16
Dive sites: Kitakoura (Akaiwa, Artificial Reef, Nagate)
Weather: Sunny, briefly small hail, later cloudy
Wave height: 0.5 to 1 m
Current: Weak
Underwater: 9 to 10℃
Marine life seen: kobudai, young dangouo, young hoteiuo (smooth lumpsucker), kokeginpo (a small blenny), toushima kokeginpo (a small blenny), hanatatsu (a seahorse), kijihata (red spotted grouper), makogarei (marbled flounder), Japanese rockfish (mebaru), damselfish, juvenile kinubari (a goby), kurosoi (black rockfish), sui (a sculpin), sabihaze (a goby), mezumigochi, amimehagi (a pygmy filefish), futairo mino umiushi (a nudibranch), himekuromo umiushi (a nudibranch), emura mino umiushi (a nudibranch), akaera mino umiushi (a nudibranch), sakura mino umiushi (a nudibranch), giant Pacific octopus (mizudako), mutsusango (a cup coral), keyari (a fan worm), mutsusango (a cup coral), Onomichi coral (onomichi kisango), sea pen (umiera), and much more
