ID Please

[jnb]

Can anyone ID this critter I came across while boating 1/2 mile off Boca Raton in the Atlantic or refer me to a site that is good for ID - I have looked and looked and coming up empty - it was very soft without bones feeling and about 14 inches and was swimming very slow but not unlike a ray swims - notice its wings which moved it along

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/49068r_Raw_055.jpg

[rchan11]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/109686batfish43a.jpg

Almost as weird as something like this.

[rchan11]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/109686batfish41a.jpg

[spawner]

its a sea hair not a batfish

[jaymz101]

Definately a seahare. Basically a nudibranch that can swim.

[LeslieH]

Pictures of those come up a lot on UW forums. It's a sea hare in the genus Aplysia. The two big species off Florida are A. moro and A. brasiliana. Not much eats them. They produce chemcials which are distasteful to most predators.

[jnb]

Thanks all - in the meantime I received this:

Dear Participant,

Your message - Sea Hare found 1/2 mile off Sth Florida - will be posted on the Sea Slug Forum at 01:48 on 07-Jun-2006 Sydney, Australia time.

You will be able to view it at http://www.seaslugforum.net/find.cfm?id=16777 after that time.

If you have had a long wait for this message to be posted I am sorry, but the Forum has become so popular that at times we have many more messages than we can deal with as quickly as we would like to.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

[msman825]

WOW. thats a cool lookin critter