Monday, December 10, 2012

Coral

One day last week, as I was walking along the high tide line, I spotted a thin pink object protruding from under a pile of seaweed. Thinking it was a plastic streamer or a deflated section of a balloon, I reached down to rid the beach of it. To my surprise, I discovered that it was a piece of hard coral in the shape of delicate and graceful tentacles. Within a half a mile I found another specimen. I can't remember ever before finding such a coral on Ocracoke's beach.

Pink Coral Found at Ocracoke, Dec. 2012


















An Internet search yielded only the following Wikipedia photo of a similar, but differently colored coral:

Corail_à_Myrtle..._le_retour.jpg by Maniacduhockey














Perhaps one of our readers can identify the coral I found on the beach. Please leave a comment if you can.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the day Charles Lindbergh landed on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news112112.htm.


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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:51 AM

    If you have an aquarium perhaps you could keep it alive and let it continue to live and grow

    ReplyDelete
  2. Emily W11:30 AM

    One of my friends said it could be calcified red algae?
    http://lifeofplant.blogspot.com/2011/01/red-algae.html?m=1

    I'll keep looking!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3:37 PM

    Interesting how things at the beach often seem to come in pairs. Years ago, I found a pair of winged oyster shells, still tied together. A short distance further down the beach, I found a second pair in similar condition!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Philip5:30 PM

    Emily W -- Your friend might be correct. Unfortunately I can't find an image that's detailed enough to make a reliable comparison.

    ReplyDelete

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