Watch Out Prey - They Sting!
Alan Quimby was the lead interpreter on the beach on May 16, 2016 and spied an Aggregating Anemone ( Anthopleura elegantissima ) and a Shore Crab in close proximity in the tidepools. The aggregating anemone is an invertebrates that looks likes a flower, with a tube shaped body capped by tentacles. Colored anemones have algae living in their tissue in a symbiotic relationship. The anemone bends away or toward the light to facilitate the light level needed for photosynthesis in the algae; it return, the algae provides food to the anemone. Aggregating Anemone Anemones eat a wide variety of food, using stinging cells on their tentacles (called nematocysts) to paralyze their prey. They can even ingest small crabs and discard the shells. Perhaps that is what happened to the shore crab on this day as the crab must have gotten a little too close and appeared to have been paralyzed by a small aggregating anemone. Paralyzed Shore Crab The anemone is abundant on the roc...