Sue Hollis, Australian Blue Dragon (January Theme: Blue)

The "blue dragon" is so named because of its close resemblance to a Chinese dragon but in fact it is a tiny sea slug being only about 3cm long For the uninitiated, the idea of marine slugs may bring up unpleasant images of slimy creatures oozing along the seafloor, but to underwater photographers, these small creatures are one of the oceans most interesting subjects. While appealing to the human eye, the main two purposes of the intricate patterns and bright colors are defense and camouflage.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.