A vacationer makes an unusual discovery in the sea in Croatia. His find is delightful to look at, but not entirely harmless.
Poreč – During a seaside holiday in Poreč (Croatia), a vacationer not only came across mussels and fish, but also made another unusual discovery in the sea. The mysterious animal he discovered puzzled him. He tried to find answers online using a video.
Croatia holidaymaker seeks answers to unknown sea creature
The man searched in the Facebookgroup “Kroati – Holidays in Croatia” for answers and shared his recordings there. He commented on his video with the words: “Does anyone know what kind of creature this is? Spotted near Poreč.” The video shows an entrance to a pebble beach, and a small, black animal swimming in the water, moving with two large fins or wings.
But the comments did not just focus on the animal. One user wrote: “That means that the water quality is very, very good.” Others, however, tried to help him. “I love these animals. You can touch them and they don’t hurt anyone,” said another user. But not everyone was of the same opinion: “Aren’t they poisonous?” The solution was also found in the comments: “We had sea hares swimming right under our noses in Split.”
Black sea hares: How to recognize Aplysia fasciata
The Aplysia fasciata, often colloquially referred to as the black sea hare, is a genus of sea snails of the order Opisthobranchidae, such as the Seawater lexicon explained. They feel most comfortable in water depths of zero to 13 meters at temperatures of 10.3 to 24.1 degrees. They originally come from Australia, but have spread widely in the Mediterranean and the North Sea due to climate change.
Petdoctor explains how to recognize sea hares:
- Longitudinally symmetrical body
- Soft shell on the abdomen
- Color: red, olive green, brown, black
- Points on the surface of the body
- Size: 2 to 4 cm
- Lives close to the coast in shallow water
- Moves gliding over the ground, not a swimmer
- Releases a whitish-violet liquid when in danger
Be careful, poisonous! Black sea hares are life-threatening for dogs
But beware: The ink that these animals excrete contains the poisonous Aplysia toxin. This is particularly dangerous for Dogs life-threatening. If the snails are washed ashore, they can survive in the sand for some time. If they are then discovered by a dog in the sand, they emit a cloud of poisonous ink as a defense. “Aplysia secretes substances as a defense when it is attacked,” says Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa from Museum of Nature Hamburg opposite IPPEN.MEDIA.
If this comes into contact with the mucous membrane in the dog’s mouth, it can be fatal. Therefore, dogs should not play unsupervised in shallow coastal waters with heavy growth of seaweed and green and red algae. However, the poison is harmless to humans because it is not strong enough, as the expert explains.
And another beach visitor fished rare animals from the seaThese biting animals are rather dangerous for humans in Croatia. (no)