Sea mouse
size:
around 20 centimeter
color:
mouse-gray with brightly colored blue-green hairs on the side and black thorns
food:
all sorts of benthic animals
enemies:
not attractive to eat!
reproduction:
sexual
- Dut: Zeemuis
- Lat: Aphrodite aculeata
- Eng: Sea Mouse
- Ger: Seemaus
print
- Sea mouse, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
Sea mouse
The sea mouse is an amazing worm. It looks more like a hairy sea cucumber than a worm. Its back is covered with short velvety hair, rimmed with stiff thorns. It has long hair on either side, which has fantastic iridescent colors. Sea mice live half burrowed in sandy bottoms.
- Distribution and habitat
- Closeup sea mouse hairs, Sytske Dijksen, www.fotofitis.nl
Sea mice live in sandy bottoms in the entire North Sea and Oosterschelde.
- Virtually disappeared
- Sea mouse in Ecomare, ecomare, sytske dijksen
Up till the 1950s, sea mice regularly washed ashore along the entire Dutch coast. But presently these 'super worms' are rare in the coastal region and scarcely wash ashore. Most likely, the decline in the sea mouse population is related to the rise of the beam trawler with its heavy tickler chains.
See also
Info
Copyright Ecomare
