Black Cormorant

Juvenile Piddocks

Piddocks are common, but tend to be solitary. However, these appear en masse in an earlier stage of life.  Which of these piddocks will survive to adulthood?

Jellyfish

Tiny Hydroids

A field of tiny hydroids, each about the size of a pin, but with tentacles, at Refugio Beach. 

Jellyfish

This looks like a bell medusa (Polyorchis penicillatus) in Daniel Gotshall's "Guide to Marine Invertebrates: Aaska to Baja". It's thus a Hydrozoan, and so more related to hydroids and similar creatures, than to other things that look like jellyfish, which are Scyphozoans.

Jellyfish in a Sandstorm

This jelly was drifting through the kelp at Refugio.  The bell is about the size of a dollar coin.  I like the way it looks like a Mars lander about to touch down.

Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

Sapnish shawl nudibranchs have complicated and varied skin textures.  Internal organs seem to be visible, or perhaps those are some eggs.  Their world is defined by touch and what we would call smell.

Lobsters in a Crevice

Lobsters like to stay together in crevices.  They are curious about visitors, and will advance and explore an intruder with their antennae.  If they perceive a threat, they retreat instantly.

Night Shrimp

Small shrimp were plentiful on the sand plains hear Hen Rock.  When illuminated, they would quickly dig themselves into the sand.

Blood Sea Star

Blood star amid hydroids at San Clemente. Humans (and other vertebrates) resemble the juvenile stages of sea stars and other echinoderms, suggesting that we are descended from them: an offshoot clan that never grows up.  But, the axis that corresponds to the human backbone runs vertically through the center of the sea star. Resemblance of a 5-pointed human to an adult sea star is as much of a  coincidence as resemblance to a mandrake root.

Turban Snail

This turban snail found me worth a look, but not worth a pause in the journey. The snail was proceeding rapidly (for a snail) across sand flats near Hen Rock at Catalina.  It was just after dusk.  I guess life can be busy for some snails, with places to get to on time, and other important snails to network with there.