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Saturday, February 27, 2021

Magic blue spiral

  

We were long overdue on a survey that we needed to get done in Monterey County, so we made a quick day-trip down to the Carmel area this week.  Thankfully, we were able to finish the survey in a few hours, and at the very end of it Eric spotted this beautiful tube worm in a tidepool.  Although time was short, he managed to take this wonderful photo.  Meet Spirobranchus spinosus!  This is a more southern species, but we'll be on the lookout to see if any show up in Bodega Bay in the future.

Isn't the blue color amazing?  The tentacles of this species aren't always blue, and I hope to show some of the color variation in another post.