Information about Sea Hares

March 12, 2001
From: Ray and Danny

My friend and I were fishing on a beach and I saw a sea hare but at first I thought it was a conch out of its shell until it squirted me with ink so i left it alone. The next week we saw 2 more so we decided to look for more and we found 47 sea hares and the biggest one weighted about 10 pounds. So what we were wondering how does a blob get to weigh 10pds.? What do they eat? Which is the male and which is the female?

Ray and Danny

barracuda9000@aol.com

Ray and Danny, 2001 (Mar 12) Information about Sea Hares. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3924

Dear Ray and Danny,
Good question. Have a look at the Sea Hares Page for some general information. Basically they are herbivores, feeding on various sea weeds. They can grow very quickly if conditions are right and there is a species in California called Aplysia vaccaria which can grow to about 1 metre long and can weigh nearly 14kg [approx 30 pounds].

I am not sure where in the world you were fishing, but sometimes storms can wash large numbers of these animals up on to beaches where they unfortunately die. If you look at the page on Aplysia morio you will see there have been a lot of messages from Florida reporting just such a washup.

Now to your male & female question. Like all sea slugs, Sea Hares are hermaphrodites, which means they have fully functional male and female parts. During mating they can act as either the male or the female partner, and sometimes they mate in chains of three or more. When mating in chains the anterior animal acts just as a female and the most posterior animal as a male, but the ones in between act simultaneously as male and female. Have a look at the Sea Hares mating page.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Mar 12). Comment on Information about Sea Hares by Ray and Danny. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3924

Factsheet

What are Sea Hares? - page 2

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