Advertisement

Incredible 'jelly-like' find on Aussie beach stumps local

A woman walking her dogs along a beach in Tasmania has made a strange discovery in the sand.

Robyn Mayne told Yahoo News Australia she was walking along Kelso Bay in Tasmania's north when she found the hundreds of jelly-like eggs lying on the sand.

Not knowing what they were she photographed them and shared the pictures to Facebook in hopes of someone else being able to identify them.

On Facebook, Ms Mayne explained to they appeared to be egg sacs which were all attached and said they were soft and jelly-like.

A woman found some strange-looking eggs while walking the dogs at a beach in Tasmania. Source: Facebook/Robyn Mayne
A woman found some strange-looking eggs while walking the dogs at a beach in Tasmania. Source: Facebook/Robyn Mayne

One person in the comments said they appeared to be Southern Calamari eggs. Southern Calamari are reef squid and are native to Australia and New Zealand.

The Australian Museum said Southern Calamari will lay eggs in "clumps of finger-like egg strings" of about two to six eggs.

"Egg strings are cylindrical when first laid but become more like a string of beads as they mature," the museum's profile of the sea creature says.

Professor Culum Brown from Macquarie University's School of Natural Sciences confirmed to Yahoo News Australia the eggs were from some type of squid, but he couldn't say what species exactly just by looking at the photos.

Regardless of what type of squid eggs they are, the photos left viewers stunned – saying the discovery was "awesome" and "interesting".

Sad likely fate of the eggs

Several commenters said Ms Mayne should have put the eggs back into the water, or a rock pool.

She explained she didn't post pictures of the eggs until she was home, otherwise, she would have taken on the advice and placed them back in the water.

However, she did say there were high tides marks and she hoped the water washed them back out, though she isn't sure if they would have survived.

The eggs had washed up onto the sand, however, depending on how long they had been on land, there's a chance the embryos died. Source: Facebook/Robyn Mayne
The eggs had washed up onto the sand, however, depending on how long they had been on land, there's a chance the embryos died. Source: Facebook/Robyn Mayne

Prof Brown said if people find eggs such as these on the beach, and they are "reasonably sure" they haven't been on land for ages, they can be placed back in the water.

"There is some chance they will develop and eventually hatch," he said, noting incubation is about two weeks.

"But if they have been on the beach for some time, then chances are the embryos are all dead."

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.