This image of a Janolus fuscus nudibranch was taken under the Morro Bay pier in 2010. The image won first place that year in the Thank You Ocean/California Costal Commission photography contest and was featured at their annual conference in San Francisco. Not bad for a one inch snail. I remember the dive and finding this nudibranch but thinking it was another Hermissenda opalescens (there are thousands under the pier) when the current separated its cerata enough to reveal a blood-red line on its dorsum, then I knew it was a species we had not seen before in Morro Bay. Since then we have photographed many more of these beautiful nudibranchs which appear to come and go in cycles.

                                                                                       Gary Powell