We regularly patrol our beach to keep it clean from rubbish, and the other day we had a group effort with some of our guests helping out! And it really is surprising what you can find hanging around in the rubbish!
Firstly, hiding amongst some sweet wrappers we found 5 or so Sargassum frogfish (Histrio histrio). This isn’t the first time we have found them right on our doorstep – two days ago we watched a large one eat a baby one!! Follow this link to find out more about these unusual frogfish – http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/descript/sargassumfish/sargassumfish.html.
The next day as we were picking a stray plastic bottle or two, we came across this big guy!! We have been informed that he is a Dollabella Auricularia, which is a species of sea hare and grow up to 1.5 metres in length – HUGE!! The ‘hole’ you can see in the middle it is inhalant siphon which draws water into the enclosed mantle cavity. They tend to vary a lot in colour but are mainly see in mottled shades of brown/green, therefore allowing itself to be quite camouflaged,
It is normally found in sheltered bays on sand or mud but we found it sitting on the beach and so quickly took a photo before returning back to the water. I can assume he was not harmed to get this photo!
It was a real group effort cleaning up with Jacob & Kristen from Denmark, Phil & Liz from the UK and Silke & Peter from Austria all giving us a hand! Thank you so much it was really appreciated!