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Critters at the Beach

By Cynthia Ann Shannon

While wandering the beaches in Atlantic Canada, you could come across all kinds of interesting creatures, including shellfish and snails.

While wandering the beaches in Atlantic Canada, you could come across all kinds of interesting creatures, including shellfish and snails.

As you wander the beaches of Atlantic Canada, you will find many interesting species of fish and shellfish. Here are just 5 examples of what you’ll see if you look beneath the sand and mud.

  1. Snails abound on every beach. There may be as many as 150,000 species of gastropods (a fancy name for snail) in the world, and they live in almost all habitats, from deep ocean trenches to deserts. Snails can be split into land snails, sea snails and freshwater snails. They can have lungs or gills depending on the species and their habitat. Most species have a ribbon-like tongue called a radula that contains thousands of microscopic teeth. The radula works like a file, ripping food into tiny pieces. The majority of snails are herbivores, eating vegetation such as leaves, stems and flowers. Depending on the species, snails can live 5 to 25 years.
  2. Flat fish are flattened marine fish that swim on one side and have both eyes on the upper side. Some flatfish have a highly developed ability to vary body colouring to match the ocean bottom. In the Gulf region, Atlantic halibut is the most highly esteemed flatfish and commands the highest price.
  3. Soft-shell clams, popularly called "steamers” or "longnecks," are a species of edible saltwater clam. When you go clam digging, you will find these at low tide because they live just beneath the mud’s surface. The clams extend their siphons up to the surface to draw in seawater and filter it for food – and the holes they create in the mud are what you can see at low tide.
  4. Cunners are fish that range from Newfoundland to New Jersey. They live in a variety of habitats but generally prefer areas of heavy structure: rock piles, jetties, piers, shellfish beds. Voracious feeders, cunners eat a wide range of foods, including barnacles, starfish, mussels, coral, sea urchins, juvenile lobster and even vegetation. Cunners can change colour to match their environment, much like chameleons.
  5. Starfish or sea stars – of which there are about 1,500 species – live on the seabed. Starfish are marine invertebrates, meaning they have no spine. They typically have a central disc and five arms, though some species have more. The aboral or upper surface may be smooth, granular or spiny and is covered with overlapping plates. Many species are brightly coloured in shades of red or orange, while others are blue, grey or brown. Most starfish can regenerate damaged parts or lost arms, and they can shed arms as a means of defence. Some starfish can regenerate their whole body from a single arm!
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