What is that ?

[shark_tamer]

This was spotted in Roatan on the second week of February 2010. Off the north coast, near West End, in about 20 meters of water.

There is a DM over there who knows a thing or two about marine biology, but she had no idea of what this is. We went thru some marine life books and did not find anything that resemble this creature. The owner of the dive center says this might be an egg nest or a cocoon but she couldn't tell what specie.

Note that this was not only deposited on the coral ... it grew on it. You can see some coral branches going thru it.

Anyone has an idea ?

 

[donnyb]

It might be a broken sea pen that got caught on the gorgonian.
Hard to tell from that angle.

 

[Pelagicsal]

It's an egg case from one of the snails - a conch, I think.
If you give it a good close look, it may still have the immature shells in it.

 

[WB2GLP]

I Second the conch egg case. Watch one being created.

YouTube - Crown conch laying egg cases.

 

[shark_tamer]

Thank you for the information.

I will pass it on to those diving with me who want to know.

 

[DocVikingo]

It's whelk egg casing.

Regards,

DocVikingo