Sea hares
Mollusca – Gastropoda
Distribution:
Sometimes dark slimy blobs wash up onto beaches during late dry season and throughout wet season. These blobs are actually sea hares – a type of mollusc closely related to sea slugs or nudibranchs. Grazing on algae, their black, brown or purple colour (dark mottled green in some other species) acts as perfect camouflage as they slowly crawl over the seabed. Sea hares only live for about a year – dying after laying their long tangled strings of eggs.
Did you know?
Do not handle sea hares – when threatened, these molluscs may excrete colourless toxic slime from their skin and a cloud of purple ink that can irritate the eyes. Some species can even kill a dog if eaten or even mouthed!
In This Section
- Chordates – Animals with backbones
- Invertebrates – Animals without backbones
- Abalone
- Acorn barnacle
- Baler shell
- Blue button sea jelly
- Bluebottle
- Bryozoan
- Bubbler crabs and sand balls
- Chiton
- Cone shell
- Coral
- Cowry shell
- Crab
- Cuttlebone
- Goose barnacle
- Hermit crabs
- Horned ghost crab (Manburr)
- Limpet
- Mud crab
- Mussel
- Periwinkle
- Pipi
- Ram’s horn shell
- Razor clam
- Sand dollars
- Scallop
- Sea hare
- Sea hares
- Sea jelly
- Sea star
- Sea urchin
- Silver-lip pearl oyster
- Sponge
- Tube worm
- Turban snail
- Violet snail
- Marine Pests
- Seagrasses and Algae
- Unusual Finds