DNS Meetings 2026
| February Date: Tuesday 3rd, 2026 ZOOM ONLY Zoom Social time 7:00 – 7:30 pm, DNS Business 7:30 – 8:00 pm Presentation 8:00 – 9:00 pm Guest Speaker: Sara Ellison Topic: Nudibranch Night links to YouTube DNS Presentation |
If you don’t yet know what a nudibranch is, your life is about to be changed forever! Often colloquially referred to as sea slugs, this slimy nickname does no justice to the majesty of the order ‘nudibranchia’. BC is home to many tens of species of brightly coloured and fantastically shaped nudibranchs, and they have some amazing super-powers to boot!
In this talk, I will give an introduction to the fascinating world of nudibranchs from the perspective of an avid cold water snorkeller. I will cover identification of many of the species you can find in the inter-tidal, provide tips on how and where to find them and share some fun facts along the way.
(sea clown nudibranch)
(orange peel nudibranch)
(long-horned/opalescent nudibranch)
By trade, Sara Ellison is an astrophysicist. After earning her PhD from the University of Cambridge, she spent 3 years doing astronomy research at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, before moving to the University of Victoria to take up a Canada Research Chair in 2003. Sara is an international leader in the field of galaxy evolution, with numerous honours and awards to her name, including the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics from the Royal Society of Canada.
She is also a keen athlete and world traveller, but having snorkelled all around the world, BC is her favourite place to go for a swim! In 2023, Sara published “Snorkelling Adventures Around Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands: The Ultimate Guide”, which was a #1 bestseller on the BC booklist.
Delta Naturalists Society 