Among the organisations documenting Australia’s sea slugs between April 6-15 are the Atlas of Life in the Coastal Wilderness and the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre.

“We are asking divers, snorkelers, rock poolers, walkers and kayakers around lagoons and estuaries to help us hunt for the jewels of the sea– nudibranchs, sea hares and bubble shells,” Libby Hepburn from Atlas of Life said. 

“Between Nadgee and Montague Island, we are asking all you coastal explorers to enjoy the last of the summer and get close up to some of the small, exquisite stuff living along our coast.”

Atlas of Life’s event is one of many sea slug census campaigns being run by organisations and citizen scientists along the east coast of Australia. Ms Hepburn said the group is organising several opportunities to get together for rock pooling or snorkelling during the census.

The sea slug census was conceptualised and is led by Dr Steve Smith from Southern Cross University who has been documenting seas slugs since 2013. The census includes locating sea slugs and taking photos that can be entered into a database to help inform research about these colourful and charming invertebrates.

“We are requesting that participants in the census take photos of what they see and share them with us,” Ms Hepburn said. “You can see what we found last year recorded in our Naturemapr database.”

Kerry Wood from Eden’s Marine Discovery Centre said sea slugs are most often found in our region’s rock pools at low tide. 

“In our temperate waters they like to live off rocky reefs,” she said.

Ms Wood also explained they could be hard to spot because they can be small so encouraged people to be patient when looking for them.

Sea slugs are visually beautiful, but also have interesting biological characteristics.

“When they mate they form long mating chains. They also lay pretty coloured egg ribbons,” Ms Wood said.

Ms Wood said that the sea slugs’ vibrant colours are a potent defence mechanism against predators. 

Nudibranch also partake in interesting, albeit macabre, behaviours. “Nudibranch eat other nudibranch so they can ingest their poison and become more poisonous,” Ms Wood said.

For more information about the census you can contact Libby Hepburn at libby@atlasoflife.org.au or Kerryn Wood at the Marine Discovery Centre on 6496 1699