Thanks to @joanaxavier.bsky.social, Javier Cristobo, and everyone else for a lovely 12th International Sponge Conference in Vila do Conde, Portugal. @wscommunity.bsky.social

Santa Barbara #nokings

I was quite surprised to find them there, as field of Geodia in the Atlantic are far below diving depths, and there is nothing published about fields of big, abundant Californian Geodias.

If you dive to reefs 100 feet deep off of extreme Southern California, you find tons of dusty, furry, wheels of cheese, about a foot across. These are Geodia sponges, and I'm trying to figure out which species they are, exactly, on this sponge Thursday.

Elk kelp is the best kelp (this one was off Point Loma, San Diego).

Humpback Whales sing while in California? If you listen to this video on a device that can produce bass, you can hear one serenading us on a dive. At Souza Rock, off Avila Beach. I'd love to hear more about this.

I was with mine at Valley of Fire today. Awesome rocks & canyons likewise motivating for the 7-9 y.o. Class.

Cool clouds on the way to Las Vegas today

A minority of the Western Gulls nesting on Santa Barbara Island will fly 50 miles to Long Beach to forage in the dumpster, rather than make an honest living at sea and shore. Gulls are gonna gull, I guess. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

This Green Heron I just put on Naturalist is my 1000th species of animal for Santa Barbara County!

Santa Barbara rainbow, brought to you by Hurricane Hilary

This humpback was really putting on a show in the Santa Barbara Channel yesterday. Seen on the Condor Express.