Ask ALOysius

Can you Find Colored Eggs on the Beach? I Think Not. But there are Eggs to Find!

Alliance for a Living Ocean

2007 Long Beach Boulevard
North Beach Haven, New Jersey 08008
(609) 492-0222

Question:

Aloysius, I found one of those strange black casings too. It looks like a space creature from the cartoons. What is it exactly?

ALOysius:

It is an egg casing that was laid by an ocean dweller. It is not a space creature. There are other species of ocean animals that produce egg casings also. Each casing is designed to protect that creatures eggs from preditors that would love to eat the eggs for breakfast. Let's play a game, and see how many of the casings pictured below you can match with the critters that laid them.

A. This black egg case is about 3 to 4 inches long, and is known as a "Mermaid's Purse" or "Devil's Purse". The leather-like pouch protects the eggs while they develop. If you find one of these on the beach, look closely for a small slit in the body of the casing. It is the escape hole for the hatched eggs.

B. These casings look like a string of khali-colored disks. Each one of the disks holds many eggs. Occasionally, you'll find one of these strings on the beach that still contains unhatched eggs. It will sound like a rattle when shaken.

C. The "Sand Collar" is an egg mass that has mixed with the ocean sand to create a long 4 inch wide collar. Once the collars dry out on the beach, they become very fragile and will crumble when handled.

D. This mass of egg capsules is called a "Sea Wash Ball". If it is scrubbed with water, it produces a soapy lather. In the old days, they were used by sailors to wash themselves during long sea voyages.

Do you know who the parents are that laid each of these egg casings? Here are your choices.

While you are thinking, here are some Fun Ocean Facts:

** It is estimated that nine out of every 10 organisms that exist on the earth live in the water.

** Some sharks loose teeth almost every day. They continually grow new teeth but may lose as many as 30,000 in their lifetime.

** Seaweed may be in your low-fat brownies. In fact, carrageenan, an extract from seaweed is often used in ice cream, non-dairy creamers, pudding and toothpaste.

** The mother blue whale feeds her calf the equivalent of 400 glasses of milk each day with a 50% fat content.

** Giant kelp may grow up to 2 feet in a single day.

** Most marine life is concentrated in the coastal areas, which comprise only 3 percent of the total ocean area.

And the answers are........

The Sand Collar (C) with its eggs belongs to The Moon Snail (2).

The shells of the moon snail can be found all along the Atlantic coast beaches along with the clam, mussel and scallop shells. Its sturdy shell does not break easily. It is almost round, and is from one to five inches in size. The shell is smooth and varies in color from grayish-white to brownish-gray. The interior of the shell contains tints of rose and purple. The sand collar egg mass it produces can be bigger than the parent.

Sea Wash Ball (D) with its capsules belongs to The Waved Whelk (4).

The size of this whelk is from one to five inches. It is large and thick-shelled with colors that very from yellowish-white to pale yellowish-brown. New Jersey is at the end of its southernmost range which extends north to the Arctic Sea and east to Europe where it is quite common. Along the New Jersey shore, the shells of the waved whelk do not reach the size of those in Europe. You are very lucky if you can find a waved whelk shell or its distinctive egg cluster.

The Mermaid's Purse (A) belongs to The Common Skate (3).

The skate is related to sharks and rays. It can range in size from one to three feet. Its flat body is white underneath, and its top colors vary from light brown to dark brown with black, roundish spots or bars. The skate is commonly found near shore in the summer, and you may see them riding the waves from the beach. Their skin is rough and prickly, but the thorny tail does not have a stinger like their ray cousins.

Capsule String (B) belongs to The Channeled Whelk (5).

This shell is easily recognizable by its deep spiral channels. Its size varies from three to seven inches. It is pear-shaped with five to six whorls, each with a deep channel at the spiral seam. Outside it is creamy-gray while inside its colors vary from yellow to an orange-brown. It ranges from Cape Cod to northern Florida. Its string of egg capsules looks very similar to the ones of the knobbed whelk. The knobbed whelk is the largest whelk (up to nine inches) with distinctive knobs on the whorls. To tell the egg capsules apart, you must look at the disks very carefully. The capsules of the knobbed whelk have flat edges while the channel whelk's capsules have sharp edges. Since the picture of the capsules is small, you are right if you said either Knobbed or Channeled.