The Sea slug census started in NSW in 2013 and has now become an Australia wide thing. Its for divers, snorkellers and inter-tidal searchers.

Sea slugs are fantastic looking creatures that are a joy to find, especially nudibranchs which come in a huge range of colours. They are also useful indicators of the way the ocean is changing.

Did you know you can also travel across Australia and do this, with regukar events on the Gold Coast, San Remo, Nelson Bay, Sydney and WA .

The Tasmanian census is timed to coincide with the Victorian Reefwatch census. The idea is to do science that is fun and social.

What do I do?- you head down to your favourite dive, snorkel, or intertidal site and photograph sea slugs. The results get uploaded onto inaturalist. People can log on to the site and help you identify the species, you can also see the results of several citizen science programs, where people like you are busily recording Australia’s biodiversity.

I’ve found seaslugs tricky to find in the intertidal zone, so you might want to combine it with a Marine Life Network- Tasmanian Oceanwatch intertidal patrol, see this link for details. www.marinelife.org.au/oceanwatch.

Ocean watch (a program of Marine Life Network) is collaborating with the Victorian Marine Parks Association, local divers and snorkelers and everyone really who does the census, as its an Australia-wide thing. For general chat and an update on the rest of the country try the national Facebook site

This is set up so you can do it in your own time, but from time to time we might see various dive and other groups, organising face to face events. Oceanwatch will be running regular ocean education events where you can also put a name to a face. Hopefully, we can all learn something and have a few laughs.