Waihi beach wash up

A low tide visit to Wahi Beach revealed some exciting discoveries, from fresh green sea lettuce and vibrant red sea sponges, to a dead eagle ray and a small shark head. Here are some photos I took when we returned from the beach.

Sea sponges…

Sea squirts or sponges? The most vibrant red.

Unusual purple – pink looking sea sponge.

We carefully washed and investigated our finds, some of the pieces of algae had started to dry out, but we soon discovered that a moment in the water and they softened again. We washed off sand, and looked at the ‘new species of shell that we have never found before!’ (as Luna so excitedly declared) which we found to be fine enough to capture air and stay afloat, while other heavier shells sunk to the bottom of the container.

Luna and Blake enjoyed spending the afternoon washing and experimenting with their finds, lots of fun!

I was most interested in these older, drier bivalves that had bleached white sponges growing from them, in what appears to be a parasitic relationship.

They are like delicate antlers, so fragile and fine.

What was amazing, is the difference in size, the small shells that the sponges appear to sprout from were around 10 – 20mm in size, while the sponges were all over 100mm. Bizarre and beautiful.