Bookshelf: Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay

Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay – Guido Zsilavecz

This is the second book by Guido Zsilavecz and the third Southern Underwater Research Group (SURG) publication. It’s all about nudibranchs, the little invertebrates of which we have a huge variety here in the Cape. They’re brilliantly coloured, but can be hard to spot. With practice I am learning where to look for them!

Each type of nudibranch is illustrated with four photographs, which is useful as there is some variation even among multiple nudibranchs of the same type. The photographs are labelled with the name of the dive site at which they were taken, which is very useful as it gives one an idea of where to look for the little critters.

Sometimes they are photographed with their egg ribbons – I often see coils of eggs at Long Beach, but have never been lucky enough to spot the smug nudibranch next to her handiwork.

Tony has an enormous book that covers nudibranchs the world over, but I prefer this volume because it’s focused on the geographical region in which I do most of my diving. It’s also of very manageable dimensions in terms of how many different nudibranchs are covered. New species are being discovered all the time, so if you spot and photograph one that looks unfamiliar, the good folks at SURG will be very happy to examine your photo and try to identify (or, even cooler, name) it for you.

You can purchase this book from SURG – there are order details on their website and they will post it to you directly. Otherwise it’s available in good dive shops in Cape Town.