Slowly on I’m starting to know some dive sites around here.  Crinoid infested reefs resembling flower gardens with, in between all these featherstars, colonies of blueish tunicates.  Lots of thick, fingersize, Nembrotha nudibranchs crawling around in these gardens of eden. But close by we also dived on algae covered sand bottoms with rare critters and seldom seen nudi’s, masters of mimicry. On 5 dive sites we found bargibanti pygmy seahorses all of them hiding in the Muricella seafans, a few of them pregnant and marble size!! The water is slowly warming up and visibility is getting better every day.

The competitors are working hard and amazing pictures are coming in.  For all info on the hugycup competition have a look at www.hugycup.com

A Hippocampus bargibanti seahorse from the dive site : Coral Cove at only 12m of depth.

Danny Van Belle, Organizer HUGYCUP

It’s not so easy to get the photographers in front of a lens! HUGYCUP participants Gino Symus

Harry Klerus, Harvey Buyst with Danny Van Belle Organizer of the HUGYCUP and Troy as they head out to the Giant Clams.