This past weekend we spent a huge amount of our time at the beach...which is fine with all of us. We might as well just set up camp there as I have a feeling we'll be there most of the summer. The shoreline continues to provide us with new adventures every time we visit. This time there were multiple tide pools, which we have never gotten to see before at our particular beach. What fun tide pools can be!
Our time is spent digging, wave jumping and treasure hunting. Of course the treasure hunting is this biology majoring mama's favorite. We lazily walk along the beach naming the items we see: mermaid's purse, slipper limpet shells, oyster shells, whelk egg casings, etc.
But once in awhile we get a real treat...the moment any great scientist waits for...the day you discover something for the first time, something that might have never been discovered before. Such was this day.
While walking, looking at the seaweed washed ashore, we came across a white ball about the size of a baseball. We picked it up and were surprised at how light it was. Upon closer inspection, the ball looked to be made of smaller, paper thin individual "pods". We had no idea what it could be, but made using the scientific method, we made some initial some initial hypotheses. One guess was that it was the egg casing of some sort.
Could it be the egg casings of the mole crabs (see photo above) we had been seeing so many of?
Maybe.
At least that was our theory.
When we got home, like we always do, we couldn't wait to get to the computer to put in what we did know about what we had seen...color, texture, location, etc.
It took quite awhile, but finally came across this post from Jessica's Nature blog.
BINGO!
What we had found was in fact a sea wash ball. Once we had a positive identification. We searched for "sea wash ball" and found out the information we had been looking for.
A sea wash ball is a mass of egg cases from the common whelk. Within each capsule is up to 10 baby whelk. But only one of the baby whelk will survive as the first to emerge from its egg sack will feed on the others. Ewww...
The egg case masses earned their name when sailors from long ago used them as make shift sponges to wash. Apparently, if you scrub with the ball, it produces a lather similar to soap. My boys were totally disappointed that I made them use regular soap in the bath that night.
Check here for more info. on the common whelk.
