Bolinus brandaris (originally called Murex brandaris by Linnaeus and also Haustellum brandaris), and commonly known as the purple dye murex or the spiny dye-murex, is a species of medium-sized predatory sea snail, an edible marine gastropod mollusk in the Muricidae family, the murex snails or the rock snails. This species is known in the fossil record from the Pilocene (age range: from 3.6 to 2.588 million years ago). Fossil shells of this species have been found in Cyprus, Spain and Italy. It was used by the Phoenicians in ancient times to extract imperial Tyrian purple dye.

Aiptasia mutabilis Trumpet anemone or Brown anemone is one of the species of anemone typical of the Mediterranean Sea, it is not as common as the classic anemone Anemonia sulcata, but it is easy to find if we dive into reefs where the sea conditions are not yet too man-made. ...

Also this year we met the Mnemiopsis leidyi, Warty comb jelly - Sea walnut. Fortunately, we have seen only a few of them, so at least for now there hasn't been the invasion of Mnemiopsis leidyi that we witnessed a few years ago. Warty comb jelly Sea walnut Noce di Mare Mnemiopsis leidyi ...

Boops boops commonly called the bogue, is a species of seabream native to the eastern Atlantic. Its common name in most languages refers to its large ("bug") eyes. A demeral and semi-pelagic, it can generally be found at a depth of 100 m, and infrequently down to 350 m. The Bogue reaches a maximum length of 30 cm. and a weight that can reach half a kilogram. Its color ranges from silvery green on the back to white on the belly. The fins have the same color as the back except the ventral ones which are white. On the side it has a dark lateral line under which we find four or five lateral lines of a beautiful golden color.

In this dive we met one of the many nudibranchs (sea snails) that populate our sea, Peltodoris atromaculata - Dotted sea slug very similar to the Jorunna funebris (Dotted nudibranch), also called Sea cow or Leopard snail. Peltodoris atromaculata Dotted sea slug Vacchetta di mare intotheblue.it ...