Sea creatures

An abalone is a very large sea snail. Abalones are a different shape to most snails - they have a wide, flat shell. You can still see the spiral shape in their shell.

Abalones are caught and eaten as food, and their shells are used to make jewellery.

Sea anemones are closely related to coral and jellyfish. They eat small sea creatures and small fish that drift past them into their tentacles. The tentacles have poison in them, and the anemone stings them to kill them before it eats them.

Sea anemones spend most of their lives stuck to the same rock or other surface, but can unstick themselves and swim to a new rock if conditions aren't good for them, such as if their rock dries out for too long or something is trying to eat or damage the anemone.

Sea anemones can reproduce in the usual way by releasing eggs and sperm, but they can also reproduce by budding off new anemones or by splitting themselves in half to form a new anemone.

Barnacles live only in the sea. They are related to crabs and lobsters.

Barnacles stick themselves to a surface and live there in the same place for their entire adult lives. You usually see them on the beach stuck to rocks, or stuck to the bottom of boats. They eat small sea creatures that drift past them in the water.

Cockles are related to clams, mussels and snails. They have a shell in two parts joined by a hinge. Cockles burrow into sandy beaches and eat tiny creatures in the water that washes over them.

Cockles can be caught and eaten. They are cooked in much the same way as other similar creatures like mussels.

Crabs are found all over the world around water, both in the sea and in fresh water. They can range in size from a few centimetres wide to up to four metres wide. They have a very thick outside shell, and people catch them to eat.