Every time I snorkel I see a new species! How is it possible? I grew up in the Indian Ocean, however this magic place amazes me. We have moved around quite a bit around the Nosy Be and surrounding islands area, and even after three weeks here, I still see species of fish, starfish, shells or nudibranchs which I’ve never seen anywhere before.

Today’s find was an allied cowrie, Little Egg cowry (Calpurnus verrucosus). This sea snail species is approximately 3.5cm in length and feeds on leather corals. The family of allied cowries are similar in appearance to the well-known cowries, however these allied cowries differ in larval morphology and diet.

I also have to report that Dirk have seen numerous Nemo fishes during his snorkelling here, satisfying the need he identified in the Cocos Keeling islands. There are various clown fish species occurring here, in numerous anemone species. We all enjoy the fun to search through our “Marine fishes of the world” atlas at the end of every day in order to try and add to the checklist.