A patch of sea whips and sea pens (Halipteris willemoesi and Ptilosarcus gurneyi) Photo: Hildering

Awestruck yet again.

On yesterday’s exploratory dive – May 26, 2012 – my buddies and I discovered a “garden” of sea whips and sea pens at only 65′ (20 m). 

These are the most surreal looking organisms.

They are octocorals – colonies of 8-tentacled polyp-like animals.

The sea whips can reach a height of 2.5 meters.

This is another case where images speak louder than words.

Please enjoy the 2.5 minute video clip at the end of this blog item to meet the sea whips and sea pens and . . . the predators that stalk them.

Nudibranch fan alert !

 

For more information on orange sea pens:

Orange peel nudibranch (Tochuina tetraquetra) feeding on a retracted orange sea pen. Photo: Hildering.

Striped nudibranch (Armina californica) on the prowl for orange sea pens. Photo: Hildering.

Diamondback nudibranch (10 cm) heading for a white sea pen (Tritonia festiva and Virgularia sp.) Photo: Hildering

The BBC video below is from SW Tasmania in Australia, NOT Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia and shows a different species of sea pen. However, I have included it as it shows, with time lapse photography, how sea pens can slowly deflate and retract in response to predation attempts by nudibranchs.