Dana Point Cliffs, Snails, and Tunicates

The cliffs of Dana Point, named after the author of the Harvard Classic, Two Years Before the Mast, loom large over the tidepools below.

Nearly as remarkable as the rock itself is man's desire to inhabit it.

My six year old daughter drew my attention to what I casually dismissed as a deflated birthday balloon floating in the tidepool.

Looking closer at the picture we took you can see that it is some kind of substance attached to a blade of kelp and each oval shape has two holes.

Colonial Tunicate (Metandrocarpa dura)

The holes are siphons - one incurrent and one excurrent, to take water in and out. Each oval is a tunicate, a kind of marine invertebrate.

Here's an unsolved mystery: These holes have been observed in tide pools in Dana Point and Little Corona. If you observe it closely, it fountains every so often. Something blows sand and water out of it. My guess is that it's a worm or clam of some sort that lives under it, but digging underneath it hasn't produced anything, so it remains the mystery creature.

You can see one here 'fountaining'

And here's a video of another one... bubbling?

Here is a beautiful snail the kids found.

Smooth Brown Turban (Norrisia norrisi)

Giant Keyhole Limpet (Megathura crenulata)