Re: Sea Hare found on Lovers Key beach

May 5, 2010
From: Mary and Sang Hwang

Concerning message #17084:

There is a beautiful stretch of state park beach just off Bonita Springs Road which you access either thru the main entrance to the park, which is an $8 car fee, and then by taking a tram or by parking just before the bridge and walking thru a gate and paying the $2 state park fee to park your car. This area on the west coast of Florida is called Lovers Key and is just south of Fort Myers.

My husband and I walked along the beach and ran into so many creatures that we had never, ever encountered on the east coast beaches!! We threw many sea urchins back in and giant mussels that were 20x the size you eat at a restaurant! But the most interesting was the big green blob that my husband saw and pushed w/ his foot. Just looked like slime, and it had no spots or stripes to make it look like a creature. It was a beautiful light green color, similar to a modem lite but not as neon. When I took a closer look, we saw it had "Shrek ears" starting to protrude from it's head, trademark to a land snail or slug. But I also noticed it had wrapped itself up in a ball like a bat which meant it had wings like a sting ray. Tried to balance it on two huge mussels and return it to the water's edge, and that's when the magenta ink came bursting out like a squid and turned the whole edge of the beach pink!! It was the most amazing thing! Did manage to get it tossed back into the ocean, but not sure it could survive in the whirlpool of a current right there where gulf meets bay. Biggest upset after finding your website is we never snapped a picture - we were too dumbstruck!

Locality: Lovers Key State Park beach, Ft. Myers, Florida, right where gulf meets bay, 26 April 2010, where two currents meet. Length: long blob, about 8 inches.

Mary and Sang Hwang

gallawang@yahoo.com

Hwang, M. & S., 2010 (May 5) Re: Sea Hare found on Lovers Key beach. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23590

Dear Mary,

I guess you have found the General Topics List and found the list of Fact Sheets with background information on Sea Hares. One of those has a spectacular photo of an Aplysia 'inking' [see Ink Glands].

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2010 (May 5). Comment on Re: Sea Hare found on Lovers Key beach by Mary and Sang Hwang. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23590

Factsheet

Aplysia morio

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