Blue lily pad looking thing

[Jak Crow]

While diving at the Channel Islands, I kept coming across these things in the sand. The top had small tentacles, and the pad was flush with the surface of the sand. It's "stem" was buried in the sand. Touching the tentacles made them retract.

 

[Jak Crow]

So no one knows what this is?

 

[archman]

It is a "Sea Pansy". They are also called "Sea Pussy" in the older books, but that appears to be less politically correct nowadays.

Sea pansies are colonies of pennatulacean soft corals. They prefer sandy habitats, and anchor with a fleshy stalked peduncle thing. The pad thing is made up of lots of fun little polyps. Some of the polyps feed, others help inflate/deflate the pad with water. They are really cool critters. Your pictures are fun.

 

[Jak Crow]

Oh cool. I was seeing these all over the place at one of the dive sites.

 

[drbill]

You can read my Dive Dry columns on them through these links:

Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Dive Dry Column

Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Dive Dry Column