Australian Beach Invaded By Thousands of Alien Green Balls

Fluffy green aliens? Not really, but that doesn't make the settlement of living balls that took up residence on an Australian beach last weekend any less unusual.  

Alien Eggs On Sydney's Dee Why Beach

There have been some fairly odd beachgoers at Dee Why Beach outside of Sydney, Australia lately: huge numbers of small, green fluffy balls that are actually living. These soft orbs, about six centimeters in diameter, are actually a form of algae (Aegagropila linnaei) called marimo. Previously, marimo balls have been found in Japan, Iceland, and Scotland, so their appearance in Australia is quite strange.

"They're actually a really odd growth form of seaweed, because seaweeds mostly grow on the rocks but seldom they get knocked off and rolled around in the ocean forming these stunning little balls,” Alistair Poore from the University of New South Wales explained to 7News."It's quite an unusual event, it's only been seen a handful of times around the world.”. Watch the video below:

First discovered in the 1820s by Austrian botanist Anton Eleutherius Sauter, and named by Japanese botanist Tatsuhiko Kawakami in 1898 ("marimo" roughly means "bouncy play ball” in Japanese), colonies of these little balls have only been seen off the coast of Iceland, Scotland, Japan, Estonia and now Australia. According to Rachel Nuwer at Smithsonian Magazine, in Iceland, the balls have been given a less adorable nickname, referred to as kúluskítur or “ball muck”.

I suppose no one will be surprised when I say that in Japan, as well as being a natural phenomenon, marimo are a beloved ‘pet’.

Sources: 7News, Smithsonian Magazine

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