We got to swim with this school for almost an hour. I ditched the SCUBA gear so I could get really close and eventually they didn't seem to care about us at all. They mostly stayed in the top meter or so of the water column, you could even kick underneath and have a cloud of them above you. The school was continually shedding scales and dropping bright orange turds on us... it was a very smelly ride home!
Absolutely no idea! Not even sure if animal...it almost looks like a brachiopod, though this is freshwater. ≈2m depth Maybe 20mm?
20m+ depth. Small stars - Porania and sponge uploaded as separate observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/105496842
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/105496843
this was cool, it was in a tide-pool at low tide, some type of worm cast possibly? Interesting structure,
I initially thought this thing was silly-string some kids had sprayed over the tidepools, but my brother pointed out it was actually a creature.
I believe this individual is holding a food item, amphipod or something. I've found many of these this season (2021), I'm not sure if they had some kind of local population boom or if I'm just better at noticing them. I observed my first handful of individuals last year (2020) and this season I've spotted dozens during single outings. They also appear to be social? I've seen them interacting as pairs, etc. They are very difficult to photograph but a joy to observe.