Brittle stars and orange eggs

We found this giant kelp holdfast washed up on the beach today.

Look closely, can you see anything?

There are brittle star tentacles. There were literally hundreds of brittle stars within this one clump of kelp. And I noticed an orange substance on my hands after I touched it. I'm pretty certain they were eggs. You can see them, orange in color, on the stems (stipes?) in the picture here. I'm not able to find anything conclusive about the looks of their eggs on Google for the time being. Do you know?  

Snorkeling in January

This week the weather rose above °80 so we made a fast diversion to the beach to explore tide pools. It was such a beautiful clear day for January and we decided on Little Corona Beach. The video below was filmed and edited by Ben (13) in which he and his brother identified garibaldi fish and other ocean creatures. Wind and swell conditions were ideal for snorkeling and the even though the water was cold, it was worth it! (external Link to Video)

On finding the Wavy Turban (or megastraea undosa, in the mollusc family) we could see the operculum (trap door) was closed. Operculum is a white calcareous flap that secures the creature inside it's shell. This snail shell was surprisingly heavy out of the water and we were curious to see the animal inside. We placed him in a container of salt water and immediately he came out to have a look around!  After our observations he quickly closed the operculum and we safely returned him to the water.

Marine Invertebrates in Kelp Holdfasts

Holdfast of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis Pyrifera)

Growth pattern of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis Pyrifera)

Brooding Sea Anemone (Epiactis Prolifera) it's spitting something out

Unidentified Crab Megalops Larvae

California Sea Hare (Aplysia Californica)

Striped Sea Hare (Navanax inermis)

Sandcastle Worm? (phragmatopoma californica)

Unidentified - egg sac?

Peanut Worm? (Sipuncula)

Eighteen Scaled Worm? (Halosydna brevisetosa) you can also see the 'foot' of the mussel sticking out

Purple Star (Pisaster Ochraceus)

Ghost Shrimp?

Larval Octopus (look close you can see it's suckers)

Purple Sea Star and Unidentified Brittle Star

western spiny brittle star (ophiothrix spiculata) - September 5, 2013
"ophio" meaning snake or serpent, "thrix" meaning hair, and "spicula" meaning needle. These stars can be found entangled in the washed up holdfasts of the majestic Giant Kelp (macrocystis pyrifera). We have observed it "milk" a whitish substance once and this time one of the stars released an orange colored cloudy substance; eggs?

Here are its spines under the microscope... amazing.