Low Tide Beach Combing
I‘ve tried many times before to make it to my favorite beach at low tide, but didn’t get the timing quite right until last week. Given the proximity of the Moon and the super-moon eclipse that occurred the day before, I’m thinking I may have witnessed a super-low tide. As you can see above, the amazing striated shelves were fully exposed. Tide pools in between held a plethora of treasures. I even met a new and wonderful creature!
Behold, Aplysia californica, the California Sea Hare:
Since childhood I’ve had a special love for invertebrates, especially snails and slugs. I remember watching the nudibranchs glide beneath the sea with such delight in the Jaques Cousteau VHS’s my mom brought home from the library… Delight which was immediately recaptured when I spied this fat and friendly creature grazing peacefully in a small pool. I was amazed and snapped dozens of pictures of the this first one, only to realize that the beach was packed with them! A fellow beach comber suggested they were an “epidemic”, and certainly it did seem like they were the most common animal around. I’ve never seen even one before, though, so I can’t say for certain whether this was unusual. It could also be that the extra-low tide exposed more of their usual territory to our peeping eyes.
One of the most interesting things I noticed about them was their ability to remain alive when out of water, looking like shapeless blobs until submerged again. It’s amazing how they go from completely undefined mass to animal with distinct features in a matter of seconds. The other beach comber also told me that one “inked” her when she tried to pick it up, although that didn’t happen to me (maybe because the specimens I handled were all in blob mode when I put them back in the water to see what would happen). Wikipedia has a great picture of a Sea Hare releasing some ink.
They’ve actually got two different types of it; a purplish hue pictured above, and a milky substance. The Sea Hare is poisonous, so has few natural predators… another reason they roam the beach in such preponderance! A little further research shows that others have noticed the beach looking extra blobular this year, and warmer water offshore may be to blame. Global warming? El Niño currents?
Like so many natural events lately, my new friends could be a sign of climate change, and therefore not such a good thing for the environment. Since I can’t change their presence here, though, might as well appreciate it! I’m very glad to have had the special experience of making their acquaintance in such a beautiful spot.