Beach Finds

While walking on Makara Beach (pictures in last week's post - click here to see it), I found lots of interesting things. You never know what the waves will wash up on the shore, and it is fun to walk slowly and see what you notice.

This the the first kina I've found, and I was quite excited, not only because they're beautiful, but because they're in a waiata (song) we sing with the children. Kina are native NZ sea urchins, and both the spiny outside and the patterned inside are beautiful. They are also a valued source of food, and were particularly important for Māori before Europeans came.

I know it's sad that it's dead, but how cool is this puffer fish skeleton? I love that you can see the balloon-like body and the spines.

I don't know what this is or why it is there. It has hooks at both ends and was obviously part of something, but I don't know what it would have been. (In case you can't get a sense of scale, I could probably just barely wrap my arms around it).

These big seaweed plants are all along the beach, and I couldn't help but think how much they look like octopuses (which I looked up, and is a correct plural of octopus). 

When I stopped to look at one closer, I realized that when they dry up, they are very hard and brittle. I broke off a "tentacle" and saw this amazing crystalline structure inside!

After some looking, I found a more rounded one, so you can see the inner structure even better. It's papery and thin, but incredibly strong!

I also found one that had been caught under a log, so part of it had dried in the sun, and part of it stayed wet. You can tell which side is which. I assume the wet side is also starting to rot, but it was amazing to feel how it was all floppy and had no internal structure when it was wet, and then was completely hard when dry.

It's hard to tell, but can you see that the black stem toward the left is holding up a shell off the ground? It's like a seashell flower! I don't know how this happened, or if it is intentional on the part of one or the other organism, but it's very cool, and I've never seen it before.

Very sadly, I also found this beautiful Kororā (Little Penguin) that had been killed. I felt terrible for the little thing, as it looked like something (probably a dog) had bitten its head. Then I got angry, because there are signs all over the place, on this beach as well as many others, telling people not to bring their dogs there (or sometimes just to keep them on a leash). I watch people ignore these signs all the time, and I can just imagine that someone's dog ran up carrying this poor little penguin, and the owners made the dog drop it, but of course it was too late. These amazing penguins' population is declining, and pet dogs and cats are the number one threat they're facing, which really means that irresponsible pet owners are wiping them out. I'd like to believe better of people, but the evidence is right there!

Sorry to end on a negative note, but I do think we all need reminders from time to time that our personal decisions affect the wider world around us, and we need to make sure that our impact is what we want it to be. I don't think anyone wants to kill penguins, but our behaviour needs to change.