Rock Pool Quest
Welcome to The Rock Pool Project quest! We invite you to participate in our new, exciting quest to explore sea slugs worldwide within rock pools. Here, you will learn about the different categories of nudibranchs and other sea slugs while gaining medals.
This quest starts on the 15th of May and ends on the 14th of June, so rock pool while you can to be rewarded all the medals.
Rock Pool Quest awards available:
Bronze
Find 1 species of sea slug
Spotted Seahare (Aplysia punctata) – a non-nudibranch sea slug ©an_bollenessor
Yellow-Plumed Sea Slug (Berthella plumula) – a non-nudibranch sea slug ©Eleanor Goodall
Silver
Find 1 species of nudibranch
Great Grey Sea Slug (Aeolidia filomena) – a cladobranch nudibranch ©Eleanor Goodall
Geitodoris planata – a dorid nudibranch ©Laura Coles
Gold
Find 1 cladobranch nudibranch, 1 dorid nudibranch and 1 non-nudibranch sea slug
Solar-Powered Sea Slug (Elysia viridis) – a non-nudibranch sea slug ©Eleanor Goodall
Orange-Clubbed Sea Slug (Limacoa Clavgera) – a dorid nudibranch ©hamlet_ben
Eggsplorer
Find egg produced by any species of sea slug
Spotted Seahare (Aplysia punctata) – eggs ©lois_anton
Great Grey Sea Slug (Aeolidia filomena) – eggs ©kwankwan
How To Play
To collect your medals for the quest, you need to follow these upcoming steps. Click on each step for more information.
You can either download the app or use it on a desktop. Click here to go onto the website to make a iNaturalist account.
Once you are logged into iNaturalist on desktop, go to the light grey bar at the top and click on community. The drop-down bar will appear. Click the “projects” button.
Once on the projects page, search for “sea slug quest”. Press go, and this page will appear.
Next press “join” on the top left, next to the word about.
The fun starts now! Get out there and find some sea slugs! There are plenty to find in UK rock pools. Check out this brilliant video guide from marine wildlife writer and educator Heather Buttivant, which offers great tips on how to find sea slugs.
To learn more about sea slugs go to Emma’s blog by clicking here.
To increase your chances of finding a sea slug you can book out a safari guide by clicking here.
Once you have found a sea slug, photograph them on your phone or camera. Upload the photo on iNaturalist on your app or via the iNaturalist website. The video explains how to upload a photo.
To claim your sea slug quest medal, you need an account with The Rock Pool Project, which is linked to iNaturalist. You will then automatically appear on the medal table on this webpage below. Click here to log in to the Rock Pool Project dashboard and link your iNaturalist account or to create a new Rock Pool Project account. If you have any issues, please contact us at info@therockpoolproject.co.uk.
Once you are logged in to the Rock Pool Project’s dashboard, on the left hand side there is a side called “iNaturalst”, click it and follow the steps to link your iNatuarlist account to The Rock Pool Project account.
Now when you upload a photo of a sea slug on iNaturalist, you will automatically see what medal you have on the scoreboard below.
Post your results on any social media using the hashtag #rockpoolquest and encourage your friends and family to join in the quest and compete for the highest medal.
Please follow and tag us in posts on any of the following social media accounts: Instagram, Facebook, X, or LinkedIn.