CURRENT LOCATION: Anchored in Ensenada Honda
18 18.318' N, 065 18.008' W

Thanks to a heads up given by a reader, we have identified the snails trailing bubbles in our previous posting. Known as the common Purple Sea Snail (or Janthina janthina), they are widely distributed because they are swept across the ocean by wind currents. The tough, transparent, bubble which it secretes from its foot serves as a buoyant raft. Interestingly, they are generally found on land only when they are washed onto beaches during heavy storms. And, we haven't gotten anything much like a storm here recently. Could this be a residual of Bertha? Or maybe the squalls generated by Invest 94L?

As for the purple, the color is likely due to the fact that when they are not floating on their own raft, Janthina attach upside down to the underside of the purplish hydrozoan, Velella (a harmless floating jellyfish-like creature). They may also dine on Portuguese man-o'war and a round coelenerate called Porpita, which are also both purple. But, is the purple fluid they eject harmful?

Well, the purple dye is reported to be used by Janthina as protection against its enemies. However, I have found no indication that it is toxic to humans. One assumes that it is used as a means to cloud the water, much like squid or octopus ink.

One final fun fact to leave you with on this Saturday morning, Purple Sea Snails are known to form large colonies. Rafts of Janthina as large as 200 nautical miles in length have been reported. Can you imagine sailing through that? We'd never get the purple stains off our white bootstripe.