Rudely interrupted by the receding tide.

People who live on or near the sea, are often amazed at what they see. On the one hand they see things that don’t belong; such as rubbish – in the sea and things that do belong there out of the sea – such as stranded animals. The tidal range in Brittany is extremely high – about seven metres average – and this means that the beach next to the marina expands and shrinks dramatically twice a day with the tides. As the tide ebbs it leaves a line of seaweed and algae behind. Among the seaweed and algae are always debris from humans – such as bottles, shoes, plastic, and containers. Unfortunately, there are often dead animals left behind too. Usually these are fish, birds, crabs and jellyfish. But today we saw something different: sea hares. First we saw one, then another, and another, and then there were lots of them. The first thing we saw was a little mound of jelly covered in sand. When we gently washed the sand off we realised that it was a sea hare, and that it was alive. Straight back into the water it went, along with all the others that we were able to find as we walked the ‘debris’ line.



Curious creatures with curious habits

Sea hares are curious creatures. They are in fact very large slugs, and get their name from the projections on their bodies. If you have a good imagination you can apparently see a resemblance between hares’ ears and these projections. Apart from giving the sea hare its name, the projections actually give them a very strong sense of smell. Sea hares feed on algae and sea grass. Apart from its striking resemblance to hares, sea hares also resemble squid and octopus in their escape strategies. They can camouflage themselves, changing colour to suit the background; and they emit ink to confuse their predators and escape.

Sea hares also have some curious habits. Among these is that when they mate they are attached to each other in groups, lines and circles. The reason for this is that they are hermaphrodites, fertilising the one in front while being fertilised by the one behind. I wondered if the groups of stranded sea hares that we found had been in the middle of a communal mating session when they were rudely interrupted by the receding tide.


Indeed, people who live on or near the sea, are often amazed at what they see.


Photo 1: 
Finding a sea hare stranded on the beach.


Photo 2:
A group of sea hares.