orange substance squirts out of rock crevice

[zthompson47]

I was diving in Laguna, CA this weekend and encountered something strange near the edge of a reef at about 20 ft. At the bottom of a boulder just a few feet square, right where the sand met the boulder, a stream of some bright orange substance squirted out. It got cloudy near the edges, and had some kind of shape near the middle. It took up about as much space as my head. I had seen a anther cloud of a similar substance a few seconds earlier, but the first one was just a milky white color. I thought it was a jelly fish until the second stream came shooting out...

I was thinking octopus ink, but it sounds like that would have been more red/brown/black, and turned into a bigger cloud. Then I found out that sea hares can eject ink, but that looks more red/purple. Someone at the LDS thought it might have been an animal laying eggs.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[LeslieH]

Yes, something was broadcast spawning. It could have been worms, clams, anemones, etc - any one of a number of different species that reproduce by shooting their eggs & sperm into the water. Sperm is usually white, eggs are usually colored.