Sea Butterflies

Naked Sea Butterfly

Naked Sea Butterflies Clione limacina resemble angels. They have a spindle-shaped body up to 1 inch long that is bluish and transparent, with pink to red-yellow areas. The shell is absent. The head is well developed and clearly evident because of an indentation on the upper part of the body. The body has robust flaps ( mantle lobes ) that are used for propulsion. Although it looks like a jellyfish, the Naked Sea Butterfly is a gastropod mollusk, related to snails and sea slugs, and does not sting.

Naked Sea Butterfly
Naked Sea Butterfly
Naked Sea Butterfly Clione limacina
Atlantic Corolla
Atlantic Corolla - Carolla calceola

The Atlantic Corolla is a swimming snail with a soft, transparent gelatinous body. It looks like a jellyfish but it is not. A truly planktonic opisthobranch that, being negatively buoyant, must swim with its large wing-like foot.

Herb Segars Photography

Don't know how I missed this, but back in August, Stu retired and sold Dutch Springs to a developer who plans to put two warehouses on the property:

click to enlarge

As you can see, one warehouse fills the small wooded area (lower-left) that was basically unused, while the other obliterates the entire area between the quarry and the road. This leaves no room for parking or facilities. The property is approximately 95 acres, but more than half of that is water.

Sad, but Stu built the place and ran it for 40 years, and he has a right to retire. As we all know, anything having to do with diving brings insurance into the mix, and thus far no other solution has been found.

The quarry will be fenced-off, and Dutch Springs will enter the history books.

Printed from njscuba.net