Southshore beach takes on orange hue as tiny marine creatures wash ashore

Jake Kenny Reporter from Community News

A Christchurch beach has taken on a striking bright orange tinge after millions of tiny marine creatures washed ashore.

Resident Moreen Sackree was taking a stroll on Southshore beach in South New Brighton about 10am on Tuesday, when she came across what she believed were millions of “little krill or squat lobsters”.

“I came across an orange beach – something I've never seen [before].”

Sackree said many of the marine creatures appeared to be dead and were “quite dense” in some areas.

“I tried to put them back into the water but there was just so many there it didn't seem like it was making a difference, it was definitely a rare sight to see.”

Another beach goer, Eve Driver, said when she came across the swarm about 6pm on Tuesday, none of them were alive and many had been buried under the sand.

“The seagulls were going crazy and there was lots of red bird poo.”

Marine ecologist John Pirker, from the University of Canterbury, said the tiny creatures appeared to be gregarious squat lobster – a small crustacean that feeds on the ocean floor.

Squat lobsters generally move in large swarms along the eastern coast of the South Island.

They swam inshore to breed after completing their “larval cycle”, and settled in shallow waters – usually between October and May each year.