It’s not particularly surprising that this critter has only been featured once here, since I stumbled across it at the beach along New Topsail Inlet, coastal North Carolina. I’ve been to the inlet itself several times, including one short snorkeling excursion, but it appears that vagaries of currents and conditions drove several examples of this species close to, and onto, shore on one particular day. To the best of my ability to determine, this is a mottled sea hare (Aplysia fasciata,) and if you ask me, “Yeah, but what’s a sea hare?” I’ll simply reply, It’s one of these. Basically, it’s something that Charles Darwin worked up when he was trying to create evolution, about the time his wife had been out of town for a couple of weeks and he was a little distracted.
All right, the Walkabout Fact-checkers are on my case again, so I have to inform you that the above sentence may not be entirely true. But sea hares are gastropods, like slugs and snails, and are specialized for their marine environment despite reminding you of how explicit Hustler magazine was. And it was not little, estimated at 20-22 cm in length. While this one had actually been on-shore when found, I did not know what it was at the time and slid it back into the water with my sandaled foot, so I did not handle it nor examine it for a mouth or tracheal ovipositor or anything – there’s a limit, even for me. I have only rudimentary knowledge of aquatic species and no idea how many things have nasty little defensive mechanisms, though granted this one was more camouflage-colored than many of its cousins the nudibranchs, which are often brightly-colored as an indication that they do indeed possess nasty little defensive mechanisms.
But wait! We have video!
[You can just mute the audio – it’s a smutphone video without external mic or wind protection, so all you’ll hear is thumping anyway.]
So can we expect to see more of these show up in later posts? I wouldn’t be watching anxiously for it; I don’t get out to the beach as often as I should, and don’t see too many aquatic specimens when I do, plus as I said, I think these were extenuating circumstances. Nor am I particularly motivated to chase these as a photographic subject – I think we’ve just about exhausted their potential right here. But, you know, I won’t rule out finding an exciting, agile, and considerably more cuddly example, say, with big eyes and plush fur…