Mystery 'thing' from southern New South Wales.

January 12, 2007
From: John Ringk

We have found a THING!!!!! about the size of a man's clenched fist. Has a head with ears???? on each side and squirts purple fluid when disturbed. We live on a canal system at Sussex Inlet, South coast New South Wales. What ever this thing is, is it dangerous or toxic?

Locality: Sussex Inlet, 6-12 inches deep, NSW, 07 Janurary 2007, Canal system a bit reedy. Length: 15 cm

John Ringk

ringk@aapt.net.au

Ringk, J.R., 2007 (Jan 12) Mystery 'thing' from southern New South Wales.. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19166

Dear John,
From your description you have found a Sea Hare.  If you go to the General Topics index [top left of each page] you will see there is a special entry for Sea Hares which will take you to relevant Fact Sheets including one on their head, which will show you what their 'ears' actually do, and one on their ink glands. I suspect you animal would have been Aplysia extraordinaria or A. sydneyensis, but there are quite a few other species it could have been.

Sea Hares are not normally considered dangerous, and the ink is not known to be poisonous, but there is one large species in Western Australia - Aplysia gigantea - which often washes up on the beaches in large numbers. Dogs that investigate - and lick - the stranded slugs can quickly become very sick and die. But Sussex Inlet is a long way from Western Australia, and Sea Hares have never been known to cause this problem anywhere else in the world.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Jan 12). Comment on Mystery 'thing' from southern New South Wales. by John Ringk. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19166

Factsheet

What are Sea Hares?

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