Behind the Scenes of the Field Guide — Interview with Atsushi Ono, Part 3

This is the final installment of our interview with Atsushi Ono. We asked him about the field guide New Edition: Sea Slugs, published in June 2020.

The Thoughts Poured Into New Edition: Sea Slugs

—— Your co-author on New Edition: Sea Slugs, Shoichi Kato, also worked with you on the previous volume, Sea Slugs — Living Fairies of the Sea (2009). Did you know each other before you started making books together?

We hadn't met before. Kato-san first emailed me asking about nudibranch identification, and as we kept exchanging messages, before I knew it he had taken on supervision of the entire book.

At the start of this New Edition: Sea Slugs project, he even came all the way to Zamami to meet me. Neither book would have come to life without Kato-san's connections.

—— Could you tell us what you focused on most when making New Edition: Sea Slugs?

As a nudibranch field guide, I paid close attention to making it easy for enthusiasts and divers to tell species apart and to come away with accurate knowledge. Specifically, since the book covers nudibranchs found in Japan, I used only photos taken domestically. I also chose specimens that were, as far as possible, adults with sufficient coloration and no damage.

At first I was reusing photos from the previous book, but I replaced as many as I could — juveniles, individuals paler than those at the center of the distribution, damaged specimens, and so on. At the edges of a species' range, color development is often immature, and there are many individuals that never reach adulthood or fail to develop reproductive capacity. But if an atypical specimen gets published in a field guide as the standard, it makes identification harder and sows confusion. I really wanted to avoid that.

On the other hand, if you want to explore variation and variety, you'll find a lot by looking things up on the website SEASLUG.WORLD. In the past, diving guides who had seen huge numbers of specimens had the edge over less experienced researchers, but once you see that site, that advantage pretty much evens out (laughs).

—— Was there anything you were particularly careful about with the Japanese common names?

For Japanese common names, I followed convention. A name is the key piece of information that all other information hangs on, so if the standard Japanese name isn't unified into a single one, confusion is bound to arise.

For example, here in Okinawa there's a fish whose standard Japanese name is sujiara, but if you call it that, no local will know what you mean. Call it akajin, on the other hand, and everyone here knows it instantly. Yet if you write "akajin" in a field guide, people from the mainland won't understand. Honestly, perhaps the Japanese common name should have been akajin to begin with. And fundamentally, you shouldn't be proposing Japanese common names without a type specimen. For fish and crustaceans, the standards there are quite strict.

—— I see. Names really are crucial — get the name wrong and you risk misreading all the information tied to it. As for the number of species covered, the previous book had 425 while this new one has 1,260 — a huge jump. At the same time, I gather there were some species you decided not to include.

For the nudibranchs included, I gave priority to those with published scientific papers, and after that, those most people are likely to encounter. Species whose even higher-level classification couldn't be pinned down were pushed to later. There were a lot of northern species where things were still unclear.

—— So you prioritized accuracy of information over quantity. Even so, the book is a substantial 3.4 cm thick. Having released your first nudibranch book in eleven years, have you noticed any changes in Japan's nudibranchs?

Which nudibranchs appear where tends to shift over time. A species seen all over the place one year can just vanish the next. Some of them repeat on a cycle of several years. You see patterns like that in all kinds of species. Overall, though, I feel like numbers have been declining these past twenty years.

—— That's sobering. It's sad to hear they're decreasing. But it does make you realize — when you keep change in mind and look at a field guide, there are things you should read not just as isolated points but as lines over time. That's fascinating.

A field guide is already a thing of the past the moment it's published.

—— True. Was the process of making the field guide enjoyable?

It was rough (laughs). You spend hours on a single species and still feel like you're making no progress… the stress was something else (laughs). And that went on for two years…

—— Two years of wrestling with that kind of stress — thank you, truly, for your hard work!

Thank you.

—— I can see you went through a lot, but as a reader, the book looks like it's going to be a real reliable partner for identifying nudibranchs from photos.

Feedback from readers hasn't really come in yet — that will be the test from here on.

With Sea Slugs of Okinawa, after some time it was selected as a Japan Library Association Recommended Book. I was delighted — but when I heard that about fifty books are chosen each year, I said, "Oh, well then, it's not such a big deal, is it?" and was told, "No, it really is a big deal."

—— Fifty books across every single genre… right? That's incredible!

See, I knew it (laughs). Thank you.

Hoping It Becomes a Book That Gives Readers Dreams

—— We don't know yet whether New Edition: Sea Slugs will be selected for something like that, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of people who use it as a treasured companion.

If people use it, that's already more than I could ask for.

—— Do you have a particular kind of reader in mind that you'd like to pick up the book?

Surprisingly, there are quite a few elementary-school nudibranch fans out there. Every now and then one of them says "I want to meet you" and comes to see me. It overlaps with my own childhood — I was a field-guide-loving kid myself — and it really gets me.

—— Wow, that's just lovely!

Kids from the mainland send me photos and videos of nudibranchs they've caught in tidepools and kept in their aquariums. One especially memorable moment was when a child brought me a handmade figure — a little craft nudibranch they'd made. I think I gave them one I'd made in return.

Once I was jogging and noticed someone near my place looking around, so I asked, "Are you looking for something?" and a kid answered, "Does a man called Ono-niinii live around here?" (laughs).

There was also a parent-child pair who called me up and came straight to my home. And recently there was a child from Okinawa I couldn't make time to meet. I often wonder how they're all doing.

—— Kids like that may well be the ones carrying the research forward in the future!

It would be wonderful if this book could be something that gives them dreams. I hope it turns out that way.

—— Truly! What did publishing Nudibranch Guidebook, Sea Slugs of Okinawa, and New Edition: Sea Slugs mean in your life, Ono-san?

I think of them as my midterm exam, final exam, and graduation exam. Readers' levels are incredibly high, so the grades they give get tougher and tougher.

—— If both adults and children come away with a deeper curiosity about nudibranchs, then all of your hard work will have been worth it.

I hope so!

—— I hear you're about to retire from guiding dives — have you decided when exactly?

That's a secret.

—— Really! I'd love to make it to Zamami while you're still active… Is there anything you're thinking of taking on next? In the sea or on land, either is fine.

Sorting through the enormous archive of photos I've accumulated over the years, and going to the Air Self-Defense Force Festa and the Ground Self-Defense Force festival to shoot photos to my heart's content. I wonder how that'll go with COVID around. I got to sit in an F-15 once — I think I waited about an hour in line.

—— Sounds like you'd never be bored no matter how much time you had (laughs). Finally, could you give a message to the readers of this interview?

Whether you come in light or heavy, the world of nudibranchs offers enjoyment suited to every level — welcome!! Once you sink in deep enough, you'll realize there's always a further depth waiting beyond. I'd be truly glad if the field guide New Edition: Sea Slugs could serve as a guidepost along that path.

Author of New Edition: Sea Slugs: Atsushi Ono
Interview and editing: Mayu Kawazoe
Provided by: SEASLUG.WORLD