A huge invasion of red worms hit La Jolla Canyon completely carpeting the floor in some areas. This was quite the spectacle. Tons of worms of the genus capitella carpeting the floor, tons of little amphipod critters zooming around in the ground and around the worms, and a whole lot of full sized nudibranchs. It was macro heaven.

The reason for this event was a mystery to me until 5 years later. Thanks to a couple people on iNaturalist I finally learned what caused this. A really bad red tide event hit the canyon and caused a massive die off. The worms showed up shortly after, possibly to feed on the dead organic matter. A sad reality to what I thought was such an interesting event to see underwater. But it seems life goes on in the deep, and as some die, others thrive.