A Compendium of Nudibranchs: From Australia & Indonesia by Wayne Osborn
A Compendium of Nudibranchs is a 190 page colour plate collection of the author’s images of nudibranchs and related molluscs from Australia and Indonesia. Individual species are identified with their scientific (binomial) names.
These diminutive jewells of the sea evoke a deep fascination for many divers. The sheer flamboyance of a brilliant palette stolen from the abstract impressionists; decorating surreal body shapes lifted from some of Salvador Dali’s wilder imaginings conspire to create fascinating and distinctive marine creatures.
There are no gender equality battles for these exotic and intricately patterned hermaphroditic molluscs. Although it does take two to tango, each are fully equipped with male and female apparatus.
Nudibranchs are reef browsers and lay their colourful egg strings on the substrate. Their lives are short, one year or less and they can grow to a range of body lengths from 4-400mm. Most species seen by divers are 7 cm or less.
The name comes from Latin and means 'naked gill.' A reference to the rosette of gills on their back used for respiration.
The images were mostly taken with digital SLR cameras, macro lenses and strobe lighting.
ANZEC Member - Wayne Osborn
Wayne has been an active SCUBA diver and Underwater Photographer since 1974. He resides in Perth, Western Australia with his wife Pam. They have an interest in whale conservation and have travelled to the Azores, the Great Barrier Reef and Tonga to document sperm, minke and humpback whales. Wayne and Pam donate many of their images to whale researchers and have documented the migration of humpback whales along the Western Australian coast since 2006. Pam has photographed 2,500 individual humpbacks in that time. Their images have been included in numerous reference books and Wayne's image of a dwarf minke whale is on the cover of the 2nd edition of Marine Mammals of the World.Wayne was the Australian Geographic Australasian Nature Photographer of the Year in 2012.They have published a number of iBooks including "In Pursuit of Whales" and "A Long Lens in Africa - Birds of East & Southern Africa."
