SHORT BUT BEAUTIFUL LIVES
A talk by SFUPS Member JACK ISRAEL
to adorable regal sea goddess nudibranchs (Felimare picta) to solve mysteries about their lifecycles.
One university professor commented in the 70’s that “we don’t have much information on nudibranch populations.”
Another said, “Nobody has tracked them in the wild.” But thanks to Florida’s Artificial Reef Program,
a nudibranch population made its home on the Okinawa wreck near Pompano.
Jack studied this captive audience for more than a year, asking questions like:
Are their patterns unique? How fast do they grow? When do they mate, and how long do they live?
Come listen to this amazing story about the goddesses on the Okinawa, and we’ll do a SFUPS dive in May to observe and photograph them.
CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT A SPECIAL SFUPS DIVE ON THE OKINAWA WRECK
I’ve been diving for nearly 30 years, and for about 20 of them, I always had a camera in my hand. Initially, it was a point-and-shoot Canon Powershot, then I moved up to a Canon G15, and finally into Nikon DSLRs. I currently use a Nikon D850 in an Ikelite housing.
I retired when I was 55 from the federal government and moved into our “summer” condo in Florida. It’s a little cramped, but I love the lack of responsibility for taking care of stuff. This allowed me to supercharge my diving passion, which went through various stages–instructor certification, spearfishing, tec diving, and photography.
I’ve been shooting seriously for about 5 years with a DSLR, but being retired, I dive 2-3 times a week, which has allowed me to progress on many different techniques and compositions. I’ve been all over the world, but there is no place like home. I love Florida and all it has to offer.