The mottled sea hare is a sea slug. It feeds on grasses, algae, etc. it’s very hard to tell but this is the front, if you will. There are two tentacles on the front that it uses to eat with. It has “wings” that it uses to swim with. I’ve gone snorkeling in some of the back bays and come across groups of these, it’s really cool to watch them sort of float/swim/glide from plant to plant. They even release an ink of sorts when disturbed, it’s red-purple and they get it from the red algae they consume. Humans can pick them up carefully, but keep your pets clear, they are extremely toxic to dogs. Even just sniffing/licking can be very dangerous.
This one got washed up on the shore, so I scooped it up and tried to put it back in the water but once something like this gets into the breakers it’s pretty hard to keep it from coming back, I need a kayak to get past the waves really. It will end up right back here again unfortunately.
I’m going beachcombing again today and plan to take a Cambro container w me in case I see another one, I can put it in a quieter part of the surf with better success hopefully. I’ll post more photos if I see one.
I post a lot here, and just want to make sure I’m not spamming y’all’s feeds, btw. If I am let me know and I’ll tone it down. I try to only do 3-4 of them to keep it reasonable but I have enough photos from my visits to really wreck some feeds. Sorry if I am.
No please post more of these this is exactly the kind of stuff this comm is for.