This large and beautiful species greeted me as I hit the bottom on my very first California dive on the back side of Santa Cruz Island in August of 1979. I never saw one again. Apparently common at one time, around the mid to late 1970s or early 1980s, this species became very hard to find. There are references to its population crash on a couple of Slug Site pages as well as on the Sea Slug Forum (see links below). While still rare, this is a popular and highly sought-after photo subject.
For more information, see:
Slug Site (plus here,
here, here
and here)
Sea Slug Forum
Created 15 November 2008
