Tateyama / Sagami Bay

Tateyama in southern Chiba Prefecture is the gateway to Sagami Bay, long regarded as Japan's nudibranch capital with over 150 species recorded from its rocky kelp reefs. Cold Oyashio-influenced water keeps the bay productive year-round, sustaining extraordinary densities of aeolid and dorid nudibranchs, ornate ghost pipefish, and the resident wobbegong sharks that drape themselves across rocky ledges. Winter water temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius reward cold-tolerant macro photographers with species rarely found anywhere else in the world, and spring brings migratory cuttlefish aggregations.