Rock pools
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sat 1 Sep 2012 02:40
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Niue's flat surrounding reef is ideal for rock
pooling in warm crystal clear water, but you have to hunt for the animals. Here
is our local huntress in action, snorkelling in about three inches of water. But
what she hadn't realised is that the yellow patch underneath her was fire coral.
Very painful, but astonishingly (Alison normally gets bitten or stung by
everything in the area) she escaped unharmed:
 And here is what she found:
 This is a mollusc, a nudibranch (Latin for naked
gills) or sea slug about 10cm long. That's on the big side for this type of
animal, and you can see the gills on its back at the rear. Beautiful. this
species is a Spanish Lady (it can and did swirl its skirt) and prior to this
photo was not known in Niue!
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