Re: 1000s of Sea Hares in Hawaii

November 30, 2005
From: Chris Porter

I was looking for information on sea hare behavior I witnessed in Hawaii (Kahala Beach, Oahu) in the early-mid 1990s and came across this site [see message #14074]. I was snorkeling, and noticed long bands of sea hares (the brown splotchy common kind, perhaps Aplysia...) traveling in the same direction, head to tail, so to speak. After I noticed the first few lines of sea hares creeping through the algae and sand, and all appeared to be heading in the same general direction, I decided to see if I could find out where they were all 'heading' to. I followed the lines till I came upon a large disk of sea hares, about 5-6 feet in diameter, of just thousands of sea hares making a slowly rotating disk of sea hares in the sand, with the straggling lines of sea hares adding to the disk accreation along the edges. Thousands in the disk, and more coming up to the disk in long lines, and adding to it.

There doesn't seem to be much I can find on the internet about this behavior, so I thought I'd submit this observation.

Locality:  Kahala Beach, Oahu, Hawaii, USA. Pacific. Depth: 3-5 feet. Length: thousands, I would guess about 1.5-2 inches or so. Fall, sometime between 1992-95. sandy flat, coraline algae, right up to shore, about 20-30 feet away from shore

Chris Porter

chrisporter9@wi.rr.com

Porter, C., 2005 (Nov 30) Re: 1000s of Sea Hares in Hawaii. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15386

Dear Chris,
Thanks for the observation. I suspect your animal was the sea hare Stylocheilus striatus. As you have note, we have quite a few records of this species, doing much as you describe, from Hawaii, and many other parts of the world. In fact all the messages about this species since June concern swarming.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Nov 30). Comment on Re: 1000s of Sea Hares in Hawaii by Chris Porter. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15386

Factsheet

Stylocheilus striatus

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