Poisonous Sea Hares in Western Australia

February 23, 2009
From: Helen Oates

Concerning message #21482:

Just a Warning...There seems to be a huge amount of sea slugs on the WA coast, especially around Geraldton - that have washed up dead, our friends young dog (9 mths old) died after ingesting or licking the slug.

Locality: Geraldton, Western Australia, Indian Ocean, 22 February 2009, washed up on beach

Helen Oates

hoates13@bigpond.com.au

Oates, H., 2009 (Feb 23) Poisonous Sea Hares in Western Australia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22278

Dear Helen,

Thnaks for the message. As you have no doubt read on the Forum this large Western Australian Sea Hare, Aplysia gigantea, has a bad reputation for killing dogs. Different species of Sea Hares wash up at times in many parts of the world, but I know of no other species with has been reported to be so toxic.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2009 (Feb 23). Comment on Poisonous Sea Hares in Western Australia by Helen Oates. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22278

Factsheet

Aplysia gigantea

Related messages

  1. Swimming Sea Hare from Western Australia
    From: Stephen Clifford, May 5, 2010
  2. Giant Brown Sea Hares at Fremantle, Western Australia
    From: Joanna Robertson, March 3, 2010
  3. Sea hares at Perth, W. Australia.
    From: John Gorter, February 18, 2010
  4. Re: Big Sea slug from Western Australia
    From: Dawn Skinner, March 11, 2009
  5. Big Sea slug from Western Australia
    From: Suzy Galloway, March 31, 2008
  6. Sea Hare poisoning in Western Australia
    From: Dr Tony Pusey, March 11, 2005
  7. Poisonous Sea Hares
    From: Sue Lennard , March 27, 2003
  8. Wilbur recovers from Sea Hare poisoning
    From: Sandra & Andy Rose, March 19, 2003
  9. Sea Hare - toxic to dogs
    From: Sandra & Andy Rose , March 18, 2003
  10. Sea hares in Western Australia
    From: Joyce Mort., March 17, 2003
  11. Dog-poisoning Sea Hares make the news
    From: Bill Rudman, February 27, 2003
  12. Re: Dog-poisoning Sea Hares
    From: Gwyneth Ingham, February 26, 2003
  13. Re: Giant Sea Hares poisoning dogs
    From: Sharon Wood, February 24, 2003
  14. Re: Giant Sea Hare poisoning dogs!
    From: Sharon Wood, February 21, 2003
  15. Re: Dogs and Sea Hares
    From: Kim Trotter, February 21, 2003
  16. Sea Hares killing dogs in Western Australia
    From: Kim Trotter, February 20, 2003
  17. Mystery brown-black slug from West Australia
    From: Julie Robertson, January 31, 2003
  18. Sea Hare? swimming
    From: Jessica Vivien , January 18, 2003
  19. Aplysia from West Australia
    From: Masoud Abadi, December 31, 2002
  20. Aplysia neurotoxins
    From: Cary Rogers , March 27, 2002
  21. Re: Sea Hare poisoning
    From: Cary Rogers , March 10, 2002
  22. Re: Sea Hare poisoning
    From: Cary Rogers, March 8, 2002
  23. School- based sea hare research
    From: Amy Dohnt, March 6, 2002
  24. Giant Sea Hare poisoning dogs!
    From: Peter Taylor, March 6, 2002

Show factsheet and all related messages