Swimming Aplysia from Greece

April 20, 2005
From: K. Tzouvali, D. Pettas


Dear Bill,

We would like to have your help for the identification of a sea slug. We think that it is Aplysia fasciata. It was flying full of determination and grace five meters under the surface for long distance. The flight of this animal is a part of its way of leaving. We have seen this slug scanning a big area on the bottom by moving with small flights from one place to another ten meters further.

Locality: Panagopula beach near Patras, Greece. Mediterranean sea. Depth: 5 m. Length: 300 mm. 8 October 2004. Photographer: K. Tzouvali, D. Pettas

The first time we found Aplysia it moved from our hands to a point on a net six meters further and higher from the place we were standing. We had picked it up some minutes earlier to examine it from the same pint on the net. Unfortunately, on the last two occasions we saw it, we had no camera with us, since we were working in checking the nets in a fishfarm.
Thanks in advance,

Katerina Tzouvali &  Dimitris Pettas
Seawatch underwater video

seawatch@mes.forthnet.gr

Tzouvali, K. & Pettas, D., 2005 (Apr 20) Swimming Aplysia from Greece. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13540

Dear Katerina and Dimitris,
Yes this certainly looks like A. fasciata. It's interesting to see you described its movement as 'flight' rather than 'swimming'. It certainly looks more like the flight of a bird than the swimming of a fish. Your comments on it using its swimming ability as a complement to crawling, to explore a larger arean is also valuable as we tend to think swimming in Sea Hares is used mainly as an escape mechanism or in larger scale movement over long distances.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Apr 20). Comment on Swimming Aplysia from Greece by K. Tzouvali, D. Pettas. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13540

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Aplysia fasciata

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