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Sighting a Sea Urchin
I often emphasize the beauty of serendipity, the discovery of something unique when you least expect it!
On a stroll on the sandy Laguna Beach in California on a summer evening, I stumbled across this beautiful purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus). It was entangled in a pile of kelp, a brown seaweed. It feeds on the kelp and is washed ashore by the waves.
People relish the uni, the gonad part of the sea urchin. But contact or sting of the pedicellariae on the sea urchin surface can trigger allergies.
I had a heyday photographing the echinoderm. Now its printed photograph graces my living room wall. Since then, I have seen small sea urchins on other beaches, but never such a big, photogenic one.
Stay curious, embrace serendipity, and marvel at nature’s spectacles.
