This may be the most adorable sea creature in the world—and seeing one face-to-face has been on the bucket list for a Japanese scuba diver until now.
Yusuke Fukami fulfilled that dream by capturing underwater photographs of the cartoon-like Costasiella sea slug recently while in Bali.
He traveled to a diving spot in Tulamben, a small fishing village on the north-east coast.
“Meeting this creature was why we visited Tulamben, so when we finally found one, I was really delighted to have achieved my purpose.”
Yusuke, from the Japanese coastal city of Kanagawa, went on his trip in December hoping to run into one of the pink-tipped sea slugs found only in the tropical island waters of Southeast Asia. His reservations at the Noble Bali diving resort paid off.
“It was so cute that I was like ‘Ahhhhhhhh it’s cuuuuuuute’ when I was taking photos of it in the sea.”
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The tiny sea slug species Costasiella kuroshimae was first discovered only 30 years ago off the coast of a Japanese island.
A mollusk without a shell, it has two dark eyes and two sensing organs called ‘rhinophores’ that emerge from the top of its head and look like sheep’s ears—thus its apt nickname ‘leaf sheep’.
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The slugs measure only about 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 inch in length (5-10 mm). They feed on algae which allows them to indirectly perform photosynthesis, one of the few animals that can derive energy much like a plant.
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