On our recent trip to Bohol, I say our, as it was kind of the first ever Zombie Divers group diving trip ever planned and executed(full report later), many fellow zombies suffered from mysterious itchy sores after diving at the many dive sites of the beautiful Balicasag Island. Many of us were puzzled and turned to the divemaster who was also hit once, since none of us saw jelly fish in the water, the divemaster put it down to small jelly fish type animals which are transparent.
Going through my photoes though, I noticed that one of the Nudibranch I photographed was sitting on a familiar looking thing. Immediately I flipped through one of my reference books on reef animals and found the culprit. Stinging Hydroids(more info can be found here http://na.oceana.org/en/explore/creatures/stinging-hydroid) these damn things got me pretty damn good on my legs on my knees. One fellow zombie was hit all over her arm, most likely brushing against one trying to take a macro shot on the wall dives.
So anyway, be aware people, dont always blame jelly fish…it might be your own fault diving too close to the reef and brushing up against what you thought was a harmless coral!
Zombie Divers 