Panic in Penzance at ‘alien’ beach invaders
AT first they looked like toxic baseballs or even alien eggs. As hundreds of odd orbs washed up on beaches in Devon and Cornwall, holidaymakers could have been forgiven for being perplexed, if not alarmed.
Jess Arnieson, 27, from Newbury, Berks, was shaken when she encountered the strange globes on the sand while walking her dog on holiday in Penzance.
“No one knows what they are, but everyone is worried,” she said.
“They are all over the beach and the dog really didn’t like them – they’re like something out of said another dog walker, who found hundreds on the coast at Long Rock, between Penzance and Marazion this week. “I took one home with me, then panicked and put it in the bin in case it attacked.”
But the Cornish dog walkers need not have worried. For the hundreds of odd orbs washed up have been identified as a non-threatening species of urchin known as the sea potato.
The sea potato, also known as can grow up to three inches in diameter and is able to survive in waters up to 650 feet deep.
Martin Attrill, director of the marine institute at Plymouth University, said “mass strandings” were not unusual as the urchins congregate for breeding, meaning many could wash up together after a storm.