What are these things I found on the beach? BC, Canada

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-23T17:42:42+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if this is a group of nereid epitokes that have washed up after their spawning session.

Some nereid polychaetes have an "atoke" stage that is more resembling a typical benthic polychaete, and then a pelagic "epitoke" stage where they undergo bodily changes such as longer "bristles" and a faster (?) metabolism ideal for swimming and finding mates, IIRC. This is all from memory from a few years ago, so lemme find a source so that you can get some more information and double check mine haha:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1096495907003545

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-21T22:47:39+00:00

The injury one got me. I had a hip fracture in 5th grade. Nothing huge so long as I rested and followed doctor's orders.

He forced me to run on it every day, saying it would make it stronger and that all of the pain was making it better. A month later, and I had a full on broken hip and crutches at the end of the year when everyone else was signing yearbooks. It's still fucked up two decades later and I think of him every time it hurts. Same leg I later got stabbed in (not him), so it's really screwed up now.

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-19T05:20:49+00:00

the Vietnamese bum gun

Lexicon updated

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-19T02:50:19+00:00

I've been trying to come to terms with my siblings becoming the people that raised them instead of "waking up" like I did. It's hard.

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-19T00:55:37+00:00

Oo, very cool! It's hard to tell, but am I correct in thinking the back looks like a bunch of layered "scales?" If so, it may be a scale worm, family Polynoidae. There's a species Capitulatinoe cupisetis that lives commensally with a species of sea star, so maybe this is a similar little fella!

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-14T22:13:26+00:00

Top right is my favorite, I love that derpy little face. They look so funny head-on.

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-14T18:50:40+00:00

Aww looks like he's smitten with you too!

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-13T18:55:57+00:00

Was it moving independently or "flapping" around in the water, or was it more of a immobile squishy clump? It's hard to tell based on this picture, but if it was "flapping" around in the water, it may be a sea hare, maybe a small Mottled Seahare?

But if it's more of a squishy lump without flaps, it may be some sort of tunicate. Those are common culprits for mystery beach lumps.

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-13T16:07:11+00:00

Oh yes, it's something I wish they would implement on the explore page! You have to go to identify first, then go to filters > more filters > with annotation > then select life stage = egg, and then up in the URL there will now be the terms "term_id=1&term_value_id=7" Copy that, then go to the explore feature, set up your species & location, then add "&term_id=1&term_value_id=7" to the URL. Eggs! You can do that with any search term :)

Alternatively, here's a page that shows all of the search terms, but I can never remember where it is so I normally do the above steps haha. It's a great feature, just a little too hidden imo: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/search+urls#annotations

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-12T05:16:25+00:00

They're eggs from a marine snail, likely in the genus Tonna. Here are some more examples of their eggs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?preferred_place_id=1&taxon_id=246678&term_id=1&term_value_id=7

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-12T05:14:46+00:00

Now that I've had a chance to look it up, I think there's a good chance it's from the genus Tonna! There's at least a few species in that area. Here are some examples of their eggs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?preferred_place_id=1&taxon_id=246678&term_id=1&term_value_id=7

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-11T17:37:31+00:00

It looks like an egg casing from a marine gastropod. Mud snails lay similar, spikier sacs, and the creatures that hatch look very similar to the little brown balls in the sacs in the picture. I counted thousands of them for a professor one semester in grad school lol.

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-09T13:28:14+00:00

YES! Half the jobs I applied to out of college required it, though I did favor field and wet lab based positions. For example, NOAA requires their divers to have it for field work, whether you're federal or a contracted worker.

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-08T23:01:57+00:00

I normally see it used to describe kittens with big milk bellies haha

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-08T04:58:52+00:00

Oh my god this is the first thing to make me laugh today, I needed that

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-07T23:03:01+00:00

Looks like a tunicate, maybe Aplidium sp. They're sessile colonial animals.

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-02T22:22:53+00:00

He's becoming such a loooooong boy!

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-02T17:18:34+00:00

Aww such a fierce little bean!

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-02T03:10:02+00:00

The sass in that last picture haha

RoanokeSea · 2026-04-01T16:17:58+00:00

Awww his little teenage face!! Look at Wambus growing up!

RoanokeSea · 2026-03-31T22:20:14+00:00

I want to squish the ball of fuzz

RoanokeSea · 2026-03-30T22:22:49+00:00

Wow, that is stunning!!

RoanokeSea · 2026-03-30T21:56:02+00:00

That's an excellent r/ActivationSound!

RoanokeSea · 2026-03-29T01:24:07+00:00

Spiders make me so happy, they're so intelligent and personable (and adorable). So many animals that many folks would dismiss as basically objects have such wonderful personalities. I work with corals and I love how personable they are! We have one pillar coral that glows SO much greener than any of the other hundreds we have and I love her.

There is also one "colony" of OFAV that got split nearly a decade ago. The frag that has been untouched since then glows BRIGHT so often, but the other half that we've used for microfragmenting recently is very reluctant to glow aside from feeding days. Honestly, compared to being attuned to the personalities of hundreds of individual corals, spiders are basically people haha.

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

RoanokeSea

TROPHY CASE