Cape Town Nudibranch hunting

Cape Town Nudibranch hunting is our speciality and at Dive Inn Cape Town we really love the little critters.

In Cape Town Nudibranch hunting from shore is possible and you have a good chance to spot alot. Nudibranchs do move around and are seasonal. Or this is what I noticed so you are not always guaranteed to spot them. With some they are so well camouflaged and or small so very difficult to spot. And just to make it slightly more difficult our wonderful Cape Town waters can have low viz with a bit of swell and surge. This can make nudibranch hunting and photography quite challenging. And Macro Photography is what nudibranchs are about. The Frilly Nudibranch is the only one I have not spotted from shore yet. Most of the photos in this blog are of all the Nudibranchs I have see in Cape Town.

Last year I did do a blog about Nudibranchs but decided to it again this year but this time mention all the Cape Town Nudibranch hunting from shore I have spotted the last 6 months only. This will mostly be from the False Bay coastline but do have some pics from Atlantic side. (Please note False Bay is still Atlantic Ocean but slightly warmer. The oceans meet at Cape Agulhas which is about a 3 hour drive from Cape Town)

The most dived shore dive site probably is our training beach – Long beach Simon’s town. The next beach from here towards Cape Point is Sea forth beach, Windmill, A-frame, Pyramid rock and Castle rocks. There are other beaches or dive sites that can be dived on this stretch. They can be slightly more work or can even be very boring. Before Simons town there is the Clan Stuart wreck, Whale Lookout and Sunny cove. On the Clan Stuart wreck I found the least species but did found my first Indian Nudibranch there.

Cape Town Nudibranch hunting

I like to use the local names as it is easier to remember and to pronounce but can provide the scientific names on request. Hopefully I labelled all of the photos correctly.

You can get a link to most of the Cape Town dive sites where we do Cape Town Nudibranch hunting our  on Wiki Voyage.

The most nudibranchs so far on a dive site spotted is at A-frame with a count of 18. We did a 90 odd minute dive and  did not cover too much ground once underwater. A month later we did the same and had the same count but with some other nudibranchs in the mix.

The next good dive sites are Windmill and Castle rocks. Note Castle rock’s to be dived only on calm days as it is a bit more tricky to get in and out of the water.

The most common Cape Town Nudibranchs from shore I found are the following: Cape Silvertip, Gas flame mostly the blue version, Black Nudibranch, Crowned nudibranch and the Fiery Nudibranch can creep in on the list. On the sandy parts you should be able to get the Sand slugs and Warty Pleurobranchs who travels between the sand and reef. Seasonal the Sea hares and Four colour Nudibranchs also tend to be all around on the sand on the reefs.

And on some sites you can only spots certain Nudibranchs. At Pyramid you get the bigger Variable Nudibranch and at Windmill the Giraffe spot (scarce). At Long beach the Four colours and Slipper slugs, Sea hares and the scarce Corambe and even scarcer Shrek Nudibranchs.

Hope you enjoy the all the photos plus descriptions, if you need the scientific names you can contact me and I will provide them.

Note you can get books like “A field Guide to the Marine Animals of the Cape Peninsula“(Georgina Jones) or  “Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay”(Guido Zsilavecz) to update your reference library.

If you need a guide for Cape Town Nudibranch hunting, herewith all the contact details for Dive Inn Cape Town. E-mail carel@diveinn.co.za .

Mobile +27844481601 and website: www.diveinn.co.za .

We offer private shore dives and do have gear rental on offer and can arrange transfer cost in the quotes.

Happy and Safe Cape Town Nudibranch hunting and scuba diving.