The Sea Slug census - an annual Citizen Science event
The seventh annual Sea Slug Census was held on the island between 23rd February and 4th March.
Stephen Smith and Matt Nimbs travelled from Coffs Harbour to join locals and visitors for this annual event.
The week started with a lecture by Steve at the Museum, which was very well attended: about 30 people learned about sea slugs, where to find them, and how the Census is run.
On the next day a low tide rock pool ramble was held to show where and how to look for the sea slugs.
For the remainder of the week, individuals went around snorkelling and rock pool hunting to find and photograph these beautiful creatures.
The conditions were unusual, as there was a Tasman Sea tidal anomaly: the tides were about 54 cm above the predicted levels. This was caused by a strong flow of the East Australian Current heaping ocean water over the central Tasman Sea. Consequently, rock pools were not exposed, so most searching had to be done using snorkels.
Despite these conditions it was a successful census, as the winds were light during most of the week. The usual, favourite places were searched: Neds Beach, North Bay, Herring Pools, South Reef, Coby’s Corner and Johnsons’ Reef.
A couple of night snorkels at Cobby’s Corner, South Reef and Neds Beach located some unusual slugs that are not often found in daylight.
A total of 84 different sea slugs were photographed. This included 13 new records for the island, and one new record for Australia – the stunning Verconia species. This is an undescribed species, known only from a few new records from the Marshal islands, New Guinea and Phillipines. It may be the influx of warm water which brought the larvae of this tropical species to Lord Howe Island.
Visit the iNaturalist website for full results, at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/lhi-sea-slug-census-2024
The 2025 census
It is planned to run the Census again in 2025, at the end of February – so keep an eye out for dates.
In fact – why not plan a holiday to coincide with this fun event which is also an important Citizen Science project?
