NonCompliant Cyborg

NonCompliant Cyborg Embroidery and visual art inspired by the natural world and disabled experience. Custom work welcome!

In honor of the campaign running from today September 18th til the 28th I wanted to share some photos of who I go obse...
09/18/2026

In honor of the campaign running from today September 18th til the 28th I wanted to share some photos of who I go observing nature with.

It’s always so nice to get out into nature, but it’s even better when we iNat together.

I hope you can get outside with the people you love, and I encourage you to share the life you find on iNaturalist . If you’ve got the photo comment feature now, I’d love if you replied with who you iNat with!

In the early days of nightlighting with my friend Jen Strongin Photography, we found a dock in Seattle where a strange, ...
09/16/2026

In the early days of nightlighting with my friend Jen Strongin Photography, we found a dock in Seattle where a strange, glorious mess of a nudibranch came swimming by, coordinating its cerata in a way I’ve never seen in another slug. I haven’t seen that swimming pattern again until this Cumanotus Fernando graced me with its presence during a recent gelatinous plankton survey at the end of August.

Under my research permit and project guidelines, I briefly examined this slug under the microscope for an identification before sending it back swimming in search of a new place to feast. It was so interesting to me how it would bring its cerata all in front of it and then pull them through the water to its back all at once, like a hundred-armed breaststroke rather than the wild thrashes I see in other temporarily pelagic slugs.

I can’t seem to find very much info about these slugs online, so if you know more about them, I’d love to hear it.

Also remember to not leave nudibranchs where you find them and not to touch them unless you are permitted and have a specific research purpose. These animals are very sensitive and have very specialized diets. Not all of them have Cumanotus fernaldi’s remarkable swimming capacity to help them find another good place to feed.

Sea

09/13/2026

I had no idea when I started filming this pacific batwing slug that a baby seal was in the water and about to swim directly in front of my face 😅

You can see where I got a little spooked but managed to not drop my phone and I only let out a little exclamation and managed not to spook the little baby back. I was worried for a second the seal was going to run directly into the batwing slug (and for a moment that it might accidentally eat it) and while it managed to knock it aside in its wake the slug was still flapping around near the light until I packed up a couple minutes later.

For our safety and theirs, you should never approach marine mammals. This baby came up to me and I made sure to be still and quiet and once it swam a bit away I packed up my gear. I’ve cancelled surveys before because of marine mammals using the docks when I’ve arrived; they get dibs and it’s important to respect their space. If they show up after I’ve started sampling, I pause any collections and wait for them to move on and I leave if they linger and show any signs of distress or aggression. Being a good neighbor means both showing up respectful and knowing when it’s most respectful to head home.

At the end of August, I found a jelly I’ve been wanting to see for years. This little baby, likely Halimedusa typus, has...
09/11/2026

At the end of August, I found a jelly I’ve been wanting to see for years.

This little baby, likely Halimedusa typus, hasn’t been documented in the Salish Sea until the two I found as part of my surveying in Cornet Bay as part of the pilot year of a long-term gelatinous plankton monitoring project.

Currently, I’m trying to raise up one of the tiny jellies to be more certain of its ID. It’s started to grow tentacles in pairs sandwiching the original four when I found it and has gotten at least twice as big as when I found it.

I don’t know if I’ll manage to get it full size, but it’s really special that just through taking time to go witness this place the last few months, I am already finding neighbors we didn’t know lived here.

Last year, Luan Roberts texted me as she was leaving one of my home docks to tell me there was a really special cryptic ...
09/07/2026

Last year, Luan Roberts texted me as she was leaving one of my home docks to tell me there was a really special cryptic slug hiding in the hydroids. I spent the next couple weeks intently looking only to come up empty. Back in August, a different Cumanotus species swam by me during a research study and within a few days, Luan had visited yet again and seen the undescribed slug without me. This time, I had company to go back searching. Sally and I scoured the dock, and managed to knowingly find one larger individual seen in the first two photos. Over the course of the next few days we saw several more, though we didn’t realize any of them until we got home to look at our photos, even zooming in on our cameras in the field and scrutinizing hadn’t been enough.
Then some harsh wind came in a few days ago and a fair amount of the fragile kelp and hydroids we’d been scouting broke away overnight. Despite hours of careful search the last few days, we haven’t found another one, and we also haven’t seen any of their distinctive, cork-screw shaped egg cases. I hope some survived the storm and manage to lay the next generation of cryptic beasties, even if I don’t get to see any more this season.
These difficult finds make me wonder how much we miss when we don’t know to look or don’t know how to look.

It was so incredibly special to go from giving a talk about connecting the public with ctenophores through nightlighting...
08/30/2026

It was so incredibly special to go from giving a talk about connecting the public with ctenophores through nightlighting and other outreach to taking about half the cTwo conference group out on the dock in Monterey to nightlight and look for wild ctenophores.

I took a lot fewer photos then I usually would because I was just soaking in being with everyone. Other folks in the group including Karla Agredano Madison McKay Kaiku Kaholoaa may have videos of the squid squads that kept zipping past the light and the baby seal that did a lap to look all of us in the face.

The last day of Ctenopalooza cTwo included a trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. I can’t show you most of what I saw because ...
08/29/2026

The last day of Ctenopalooza cTwo included a trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. I can’t show you most of what I saw because we went deep behind the scenes, but one of the lovely folks in our group got this pic of me behind the Pleurobrachia* californensis tank and it makes me really happy.

The videos include:
Bloody Belly Comb Jelly Lampocteis cruentiventer
Bathocyroe fosteri
Pleurobrachia* californensis

(*the genus is currently officially Hormiphora but will likely be revised to Pleurobrachia)

There are a lot of reasons why I love iNaturalist but thus story highlights quite a few of them. I’m so glad to have a c...
08/23/2026

There are a lot of reasons why I love iNaturalist but thus story highlights quite a few of them. I’m so glad to have a community to learn from and also a way to contribute towards our global understanding of marine life just by being curious and sharing what I see.

If you’ve been hesitant to share your photos on iNaturalist because you feel like they aren’t good enough, this is your sign to post them anyways.

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