1909 - Aplysia fasciata

I think this is Aplysia fasciata, Liebre de mar negra in Spanish. Common name the "mottled sea hare", or the "sooty sea hare". It is an Atlantic species of sea hare or sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Aplysiidae.


According to cell.com Aplysia is a genus of gastropod molluscs well-known as ‘model organisms’ in neuroscience, particularly work on the cellular biology of learning and memory (for his contributions Eric Kandel shared the 2000 Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine). Their latin name comes from L'Aplysia — “that which one cannot wash”. Aplysia has one of the earliest mentions in the literature of any animal, the first authentic description being by Pliny in his Historia Naturalis, c. 60 A.D. They are also commonly called sea hares because their posterior chemosensory tentacles, the rhinophores, stick up like ears.

So it was my third time going swimming (taking turns with Niklas as someone had to watch our stuff) and I left the camera at the blanket. I was thinking that I'll most likely will now encounter something fab as previous times I had camera and it was in use. So in I go and see something black. First I thought it was a jellyfish, then I though it was a bat that had somehow gotten into the sea and then I though it was a ray fish baby. I kind of knew it was something I had never seen before and I saw it swimming so I knew it was alive. Some googling and I found similar pictures. Internet is so much fun!

So I feel quite cool that I've seen this Atlantic animal in our Mediterranean bay. 

BTW a few weeks back one ray fish had wondered to the same beach were this hare was, so it wasn't that far fetched to think it could be a ray. 

So today we've been swimming (and might go for an evening swim too) and I did the dyeing of fabric. The fabrics are now in plastic bags for 24 hours and then they will be washed. And then I have wondered about the 400 pictures I took of this water animal.

But I've learned a lot!

Ps. I run back to get the camera to get the pictures... :-D