This says it all…. 2012 is a gorgeous year on Sanibel. Sanibel’s Lighthouse Beach was no exception yesterday where I met Melissa using PEN SHELLS to make this “sign of the times” (heehee). Her kids Ricki and Mack made perfect models to show off her seashell art.
The beach and parking lots have made a full recovery from Tropical Storm Debby last month. Even the STARFISH are recovering! Days after TS Debby, we saw hundreds of live STARFISH washed up on the beach with most of their arms broken off. See how resilient they are? This one had 4 out of 5 arms broken off (I’m sure from the storm) and all 4 are growing back now trying to match that original long arm on the right of my hand. Cool, huh?
I also saw a live SEA HARE (or SEA SLUG)! It’s always a treat to see these graceful creatures swimming along our shoreline.
I have video of a larger one 2 years ago which shows the purple ink shooting out (CLICK HERE), but this SEA SLUG is much smaller and has little green “horns”. Here’s another quick vid taken in knee deep water near the Sanibel pier.
PS- Oh, and don’t mind that AHH-OOO-GAA noise at the end. One of my best buddies was calling me on my cell phone… that’s her ring tone. It makes me laugh every time! LOL
YAY! this time I am the first! Hee hee! Cool shell-sand art! Wish so badly I was there… :(
Great pictures…
You should make a movie trailer out of this clip, like last time, but using your friends ringtone as the background music….it would make it seems that your sea slug is a giant, trying to take over the island, hee hee!!
Donna, LOL I thought about doing something really funny with it too! ;) I wish I had had the time for this one.;(
Gorgeous photo! Makes me wish I was already retired so I could make day trips to the beaches all over our state.
That first photo is gorgeous!! The colors are amazing!
Wow awesome pictures!!! By the way this is my first time commenting and I love this website!!!!! Thanks for all the great pictures and posts! :)
Nice sea hare! Over the years I’ve seen a lot of sea hares in California, but I never saw one swimming. It seems that they swim really well, and reasonably fast too.
I am leaving for Sanibel tomorrow morning! I cannot wait to use my new shell sifter.
Me to. Will be there tomorrow!! I got a shell sifter too!!
I never knew a Sea Hare or Sea Slug ever existed. What a fasinating creature! Not only do we get to look at a picture of it, which is awsome enough, but we get to watch it swimming. Absolutly beautiful! Thank you again, Pam.
Starfish…Never seen a wild live one. as for sea hares… =)
I was watching two videos I took on Sanibel of a brittle starfish trying to turn over and another of a Snowy Egret fishing. Their motions remined me of a symphony as does this video. Maybe it is time to create a “Sanibel Symphony” of all of the creatures on Sanibel. MEM(Mother Earth Marilyn)
MEM, brilliant idea!
I just got home to Minnesota.. Almost cried leaving the island! Lol.. Seriously, though, it was very hard to leave! Next year, I would like to stay for a month! We found great shells, and we had the best trip ever!! Will miss my Sanibel happy place!! Sherri from MN
Thanks Pam for solving our great mystery! Jim got some photos and a similar video of the sea hare/slug off of Buttonwood on 7/4. We hadn’t had a lot of time to research it, but tripped over it here on your site. Thanks for solving the great mystery. We watched it swim for about 45 mins. It’s so graceful.