NonCompliant Cyborg

06/01/2026

Drove over 2000 miles to go see Aulacoctena and friends at last week. On the drive down we saw so many rainbows, it felt like a sign from the ctenophores that we were making the right decision.

I added some of the critters we saw to photos from the drive to show how they were on my mind. Enjoy 😊

05/31/2026

Even the rain couldn’t keep me off the docks in Monterey! Here’s some of my favorite finds from adventuring with and .muncher .

1. The Spanish Shawl nudibranch! I’m so used to how cryptic many of our Washington sea slugs are that it was such a delight how they orange and purple beauties are like living billboards on the dock just shouting at you to come get a look. I saw five of them, including one mid-hydroid snacking.

2. Grooved Mussel Crab - this little friend was swimming around in the water column. I thought it was really cool that Monterey has them just like I do back home.

3. Seed Shrimp aka Ostracod - I’ll never get over how cute these little guys swim. I was also shocked it stopped long enough for a microscope pic.

4. Californian Strawberry Anemones - these are just so pretty I wanted to take a million photos of them. I’m obsessed with the texture on their tentacles and also their colors. 💗🤍🧡

5. Monterey Dorid - so fitting to find a Monterey Sea Lemon in Monterey. It was so cute and tiny, smaller than my pinky nail.

6. Opalescent Nudibranch - as I was photographing these ones I was thinking I might have some confused friends on iNaturalist if they didn’t realize I was posting from a different location. Up in the Salish Sea we have this ones cousin, the thick horned or northern opalescent, which has a white line down each cerata.

7. Stripe Shore Crab - I love this ones teal color and stripes and how it was hanging out in these beautiful sculptural bryozoans.

8. Tiny jelly to be identified - this one had to have been the prettiest hydromedusae I have ever seen. It was speckled in what I think may have been stinging cells on the bell and had these gorgeous yellow radial canals with red dots around the rim. Just stunning.

9. Baby ctenophore - we saw two of these and they were .muncher’s first wild ctenos.

10. Siphonophore, maybe Prayidae - we saw so many of these single swimming bells with yellow siphosomes.

11. Tiny jelly full of xoanthellae - maybe a Velella medusae

12. Salp!!!

13. Swimming sea cucumber with 14. Scaleworm friend

05/27/2026

Interrupting my grid plans with an obligatory pic with Aulacoctena. My mom and I impulsively drove 1000 miles down to Monterey to visit the deep sea ctenophore that I’ve had framed on my wall for almost a decade. We were able to get in right at the start of the day and had the whole Into the Deep gallery at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to ourselves, so I got to pose for a few full face pics from behind the tank so you can actually see me this time.

Aulacoctena is a stunning ctenophore with intricate swirly branching all over its body similar to some Beroe, even while being a cydippid with two simple white tentacles. I’m definitely going to have to spend more time just watching it, because it’s just breathtakingly intricate.

05/21/2026

This week I’d planned on being on the outer coast, but my back had other plans. After a rest day, I managed to do some smaller excursions close to home, and the slug I found at all three spots was these clown nudibranchs. This one is from earlier this year, but I don’t think I’d shared it here yet so I thought it was a good time in honor of all the visiting clowns.

The pool this sea slug was in was full of debris swirling around it as the waves went in and out, making it look like it was amongst swirling galaxies so I decided to edit it into space.

Background adapted from open access astro image with Image credit: Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/G. Garmire; Infrared: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and NSA/ESA/CSA/STScI/A. Pagan. You can view the original image the background is adapted from at: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/chandra-webb-catch-twinkling-lights/

05/20/2026

It feels like forever ago but somehow its only been a couple months. In early March, I took and to one of my favorite docks for the first time. Despite Spring still being a couple weeks away, the water was teeming with jellies and it wasn’t long before we were squealing in excitement over an even more unexpected visitor.

As the nearby ferry bobbed our platform side to side, the water swirled around the light and from the depths this grunt sculpin came tumbling head over tail, disoriented with it. As it began to regain some control, it came right up to our light. I would never have expected to see this fish known for crawling around on the bottom up at the surface; I figured my best home of finding one in the wild would be in the tide pools. I’m grateful it visited though.

I now have prints and stickers of this beauty listed, find them from my profile.

05/14/2026

It's devastating how many whales have been washing up dead recently in the Salish Sea; this grey whale that washed up today on Whidbey Island is the 19th one this year in Washington State. Just a few days ago a fin whale also died on Samish Island, and less than a month ago another grey whale washed up dead in Lottie Bay in Deception Pass State Park. That's three whales washed up dead close to where I live in less than a month. It's just heartbreaking.

Photo taken by me early this evening May 13th, 2026.

05/13/2026

Excited to be giving this talk this Saturday! Join us at The Salish Sea School’s Discover Center at 10 AM to learn about “jellies”!

Did you know a local jellyfish gave us the key to researching and helping treat cancer and other medical conditions?

What about how a group of animals long thought to be jellies is actually likely our most distant animal relative with an independently evolved form of nervous system?

Learn more fascinating facts about the ocean neighbors you didn't realize were so interesting at this month's coffee club.

Saturday, May 16th at 10AM @ our Discovery Center (2201 Skyline Way, Anacortes, WA)

https://www.thesalishseaschool.org/community-events

05/11/2026

When you lean really far over the dock & think the saxophones are getting louder but it’s actually just the Red-trumpet Calcerous Tubeworms….

Serpula columbiana is one of my favorite steadfast dockfouling finds. The color, the texture, the drama. Just perfect.