Unidentified Growth - Please Help

[offthewall1]

I photographed this item off the coast of San Salvador Island Bahamas... nobody seems to know what it is. Anyone know?

Thanks in advance for help ID'ing.

 

[knotical]

hair clip ?

 

[smellzlikefish]

It looks like gastropod eggs to me, maybe a conch? Each of those slices contains ~50-100 young that will emerge into veligers.

 

[LouisJ]

Eggs from a Horse Conch.

Oops, we call them Horse Conch in the Bahamas but the proper name is West Indian Chank. I have seen them laying the egg cases before - It takes forever...

 

[diversteve]

Eggs from a Horse Conch.

Oops, we call them Horse Conch in the Bahamas but the proper name is West Indian Chank. I have seen them laying the egg cases before - It takes forever...

Here's a picture of that:
Wetpixel :: Underwater Photography Forums > Found in Cozumel

 

[offthewall1]

Thanks for the info... I was thinking egg case... but had no idea from what.

 

[redacted]

I do not believe it is conch eggs. See Horse Conch Eggs video: Huge horse conch egg sac cluster. - YouTube

I believe it is the cartridge like skeleton of a large Sea Cucumber.

 

[ColoDale]

I saw somehting similar last year in Cozumel which was conch laying an egg case. It's not all the way out and I can't say what it would look like after being there for awhile. The fact that the photo above shows it's attached to plants makes me think egg case but I can't say conch or not. Sure looks like conch.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/marine-life-ecosystems/383063-what-conch-doing.html

 

[diverrick]

What are the dimensions? The Conch things are small. A type of shark also lays a case like that but it is larger, like 12 inches long and maybe 3-4 inches in diameter. Don;t recall the name of the shark, I also found them on the bahamas. I used to have pics but lost them on my old computer when it died.