That’s what ran through my head on seeing this sea urchin in a rock pool at Flat Rock, Ballina, yesterday (why I was thinking of Star Trek, I’ll never know). Its green tube feet were moving quickly, but it wasn’t going anywhere. The orange spines were also moving and it would normally be speeding (if you can call it that) across the sandy rock pool bottom on the tube feet. But this one had met its demise. What it had left for a nervous system was causing the movement – if you want to know more about what’s inside, go here.
The underside shows, in the centre, the mouthpiece (called the Aristotle’s lantern), which it would have used to scrape algae off the rocks and move it inside the body for digestion.
This one had been thoroughly speared and its guts eaten by a bird, possibly one of the sooty oystercatchers or the eastern reef heron (Egretta sacra albolineatai, dark morph) that was poking its beak into the pools.
Various migratory birds were enjoying a rest or gleaning. They’ll be off to the northern hemisphere in autumn.
There was also a small octopus on its last legs, so to speak, looking very unhealthy in one of the pools. It was upside down, flailing its arms and couldn’t right itself, and when I carefully moved it right-side-up, it didn’t trundle off to shelter like they usually do. Perhaps it was at the end of its life – octopuses often last only a year or so.
All in all, a bit of drama on the rock platform in the hot summer sun.