INSANE & Extremely RARE - Gymnodoris ceylonica CONGREGATION - migrating, mating, and laying eggs

#nudibranch #gymnodoris #huahine #frenchpolynesia For a nudibranch lover, finding these beautiful dorids under our boat every day has been absolute heaven. I am in awe as their migration continues to unfold. On the second day, while hundreds of nudibranchs were still present, the ones on the move were significantly smaller. They also seemed more focused on mating and laying eggs than on traveling. By the third day, as I swam the shallow shelf, I found a ton of evidence that they had passed through. Literally every piece of seagrass, every twig, and even the sand was decorated with bright orange egg tinsel, waving in the current. It was like seeing the remnants of Halloween in a neighborhood the day after. I even found eggs attached to the decorative forest growing out of the top of a large snail shell deep into the shelf, a clear sign the nudibranchs had traveled toward the reef. Just like in the days before, lots of other creatures, were out and about and intermingling with the invertebrates. It made me wonder if they had always been there and I was only now seeing them because I was looking more intently. By the fourth day, the winds had picked up, and the number of nudibranchs flying through the water column increased. The egg strands were also threatening to fly off their hosts. Although hundreds of nudibranchs remained on the sandy shelf, many had buried themselves in the sand or taken shelter under something. The primary activities today were moving and mating, rather than laying eggs. Every day, the scene changes, and I am blown away by what I get to see and photograph. I know the days are numbered before they all disappear, but until then, I'll take advantage of being in the water as much as I can. NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia. So, here begins our journey, filled with unmatched excitement and honestly, a bit of trepidation as well. We have much to learn as we travel the world on our floating home and we intend to document that journey and share it with you. We are so glad you have decided to join us, and we hope that you will find our story so compelling that it will inspire you to chase your dreams too! As a viewer, we consider you to be part of our family and look forward to getting to know you. Don't hesitate to comment on our videos and ask questions. We will do our best to answer every correspondence! All we ask is that you have patience with us as we work really hard to improve our camera/video techniques and ability to tell a story. Hopefully, you will be as BLOWN AWAY from watching, as we are in experiencing and producing our adventures! HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US? If you wish to support our video efforts, all we ask is that you SUBSCRIBE, give a THUMBS UP, SHARE our videos with your friends, AND COMMENT! WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET TO KNOW US MORE DEEPLY? It would be an honor and pleasure to deepen our relationship with you as a Patron. Please click on the following link to see how: https://www.patreon.com/sailingblownaway WOULD YOU LIKE TO FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY? https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/6040796987916288