Saturday 23 April 2011

I Saw Sea Shells On The Sea Shore

The problem is that I can't identify these ones.  Can anyone help me?







This, on the other hand, is a Horse Mussel shell and this was only the second time I had seen one.


This isn't a shell it's a star-shaped jellyfish of some sort but I can't find any reference to blue star-shaped jellyfish


And finally a beautiful large starfish:


All the above were found when Pauline and I were out walking on Ruakaka Beach in Northland.

10 comments:

  1. No I can't the first looks like a whelk with barnacles.....it's all foreign to me.

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  2. The round flat one looks like a kind of sand dollar. What is amazing to me is what good shape they're all in!

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  3. Adrian: Thanks. I can't identify the whelk as a NZ once but it looks pretty old so I suppose it could have been washed over from somewhere else. Or perhaps I just can't identify it!

    Lisa: Thanks. I've never heard of them no seen one before but now that I've looked them up that looks like it. The beach was full of whole shells and creatures.

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  4. After many years of holidaying on Ruakaka beach those made me very nostalgic.... We used to take the kids to time share my friends caravan and have two weeks at the end of January when our boarding cattery was quieter after Xmas, collecting mussels, floundering, rowing over the estuary, fishing the river, and surfing every afternoon. The beach and estuary were always a pleasure, despite the prsence of the chimneys nearby...
    Familiar shells, but can't help with any names!

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  5. Wish I knew. Such beauty on this one beach. Love them!

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  6. Fi: Good to hear that. The chimneys are still there, of course, although the powers station has been de-commissioned.

    Norma: It was a recent comment of yours that reminded me to do this post.

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  7. There were so many 'different' shells on the beach that day, and very few of the ones I go there specifically to collect. I should have paid attention to what the weather had been doing in previous days!

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  8. I've seen sanddollars on one or two other blogs so I recognised that when I saw it here now. Never seen one here. From our west coast beaches I recognize the shapes of the smaller ones and the starfish.

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  9. The round thing is a snapper biscuit! It's a kind of urchin. The starfish is a cushion starfish. Probably a Meridiastra mortenseni!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you crapulence for the information. How on earth did you suddenly hark upon this obscure post of mine?

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