Sea slug shoots to online fame
If you want more followers on Tik Tok, film a cool-looking sea slug.
That wasn’t the reason Gisborne Herald photographer Liam Clayton took a video of a blue dragon sea slug but it has gone viral on the social media platform.
On Thursday night he posted a video of the blue dragon sea slug, or Glaucus atlanticus, doing a forward roll in a container of seawater at O¯ hope Beach, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
In five days it has had 6.5 million views worldwide. Liam’s fan base on Tik Tok grew from fewer than 100 followers to more than 11,000.
A few of these sea slugs have been spotted at Tairawhiti beaches too. If you do come across one, do not pick them up. Their sting is reputedly worse than a sting from a bluebottle jellyfish, which these sea slugs eat for breakfast.
Liam’s viral post started with a spontaneous road trip last Sunday. He saw a photographer friend of his, Wayne Feisst, post a picture on Facebook of these blue sea slugs at O¯ hope Beach.
“He let me know the general area he saw them.”
Liam had a few hours spare, and is always up for an adventure, so he jumped in his truck with his brothers and a mate and headed through the gorge, leaving behind the fine Gizzy weather for more-stormy conditions in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
Once at O¯ hope Beach, he went down to the waterline where he saw quite a few of the blue dragon sea slugs washed up on the tideline.
He then went to Kmart to get a plastic tub so he could observe them better through his “makeshift portable aquarium”. Liam said he was careful not to touch it, so scooped it in and out with a shell.
A casual post on Facebook clocked up just over 10,000 views but it was when Liam posted it to Tik Tok that he and the blue sea slug went viral.
Now his video has more than 900,000 likes, and climbing. It’s prompted Liam to become an active user on Tik Tok. Follow his adventures @liamclaytonmedia