“Drill, Baby, Drill”… Trump vs. the Moon Snail

A current politician, now at the zenith of his powers, has popularised a term—anathema to some—that trumpets the edict: “drill baby, drill”… but when it comes to drilling, the Orange Quiff has more than met his match. Snail trumps Trump, hands down. Fancy ‘The Donald’ being eclipsed by a predatory marine gastropod of the family Naticidae—aka. the Moon Snail.

All with a sharp eye and an inquisitive mind will have seen evidence of ‘moon snail feasting’—especially if your gaze is downcast and in focus at the shoreline where precision-drilled, half-shell bivalves often dot the tidal shell-line. There, you will see the winner-take-all reminders of unequal warfare. In this to-the-death struggle, the winner is always the same, yet it is a struggle that is waged, day and night, beneath the ocean’s surface or in the wet sand left by the tidal roll-back in the gladiatorial world of shellfish.

As I rest my ageing knees at the ‘Sitting Rock’… a rock conveniently sited halfway between the Cypress carpark and ‘Cannonball Point’ [my name for the half-buried balled rocks that are a feature of the North Lorne beach and that will be easily identified by our regular dog walkers] … I can’t help reflecting that, out there under the ocean, it is a world of ‘eat or be eaten’.

Some predatory creatures have honed the ‘eat’ option into an art form … and the moon snail is undoubtedly one of these. Watch and weep, Donald, for when it comes to “drill baby, drill”, these little guys are masters of their craft as they stalk unsuspecting bivalves [and occasional crabs], latch on, then drill their own peculiar version of terror and death.

Much has been written about moon snails. Perhaps this stems from a morbid fascination with their particularly brutal and gruesome predatory skills … herein, another eerie parallel with the 45th + 47th US President!

Most of the following information for this article is collated from four sources:

Wikipedia https://tinyurl.com/32wmhtzx
Museums Victoria https://tinyurl.com/ycx7f9f4
Nick Baker’s Discover Wildlife article https://tinyurl.com/4aatc6bv
The Port Phillip Dolphin Research Lab https://tinyurl.com/2kt57vnw
… but, as a matter of principle, I have avoided AI.

There are about 260–270 species of naticidae [moon snail] worldwide, and while they are most plentiful in tropical and temperate waters, some also inhabit the freezing Arctic and Antarctic oceans.

While they wander the sandy sea floor at great depths, we know them best from the intertidal zone where they can often be seen ploughing through the sand to leave their characteristic tracks as they search for bivalves and other prey. However, they will also attack almost any shelled mollusc they encounter in the sand, including other moon snails [which brands them as true cannibals], while at the same time, they are more than happy to drill and despatch a crab or two!

The name’ moon snail’ arises, not from any relationship to the cycles of the moon but from the shape of the snail’s aperture—the opening to the inner cavity of the shell, which the ancients thought resembled the outline of a half-moon.

 

After a moon snail has stalked and enveloped its prey, it bores a hole through the mollusc shell using a barbed drilling proboscis [or ‘tongue’].  It then uses its tongue to inject a cocktail of hydrochloric acid and enzymes to soften and dissolve the flesh of the shellfish.  This double action takes time, though, and grinding through the shell of a thicker bivalve might take a couple of days.  Finally, with the hard work done, the hole drilled, and the shellfish now turned into chowder, the ravenous moon snail sucks out the dissolved flesh for dinner… yum, yum!

 

A holed shell with a ‘countersunk’ appearance is characteristic of moon snail predation, with the hole size varying according to the species.

In the breeding season, the female moon snail lays a gelatinous matrix that embeds tens of thousands of tiny eggs.  These egg agglomerates vary in appearance from the stiffer, grey casings [sand collars] that are found along the Pacific Northwest coast of America to the soft, squidgy, transparent half-moon jellies typical of our Southern Ocean Moon Snails.  [see photograph].

 

Their C-shaped or horseshoe-shaped egg masses are about the same thickness as the BBQ pork sausages so popular at the A-Team on Friday evenings. They are surprisingly large, given the size of the snail that makes them, swelling to many times the size of the parent snail. While they are often mistaken for jellyfish, they are quite harmless to pick up and examine—despite that we may feel a little squeamish when first handling them.

With the eye of faith and a little practice, the tiny snail embryos can sometimes be made out as tiny ovals embedded within the jelly if held up to the light. More than half the eggs lie just under the outer surface of the jelly and will be the first to hatch as oxygen diffuses into the jelly. Then, as these outer eggs hatch and the jelly begins to break down, oxygen can then reach the inner eggs. The whole jelly mass breaks down as the eggs hatch.

After hatching, the microscopic snail larvae join the plankton community and drift away with the currents. However, as predators abound in the ocean, only a small number of larvae will ever become adult snails. Found at the tidal high-water mark along the Otway coast, these egg jellies are a familiar sight to any regular beach-walker in the peak snail breeding season of spring to early summer. Though dogs tend to ignore them, it will do no harm to a dog if it does pick one up.

As a moon snail ploughs through the wet sand to ‘smell out’ the chemical scent of a nearby and hapless bivalve, it leaves behind a characteristic sand trail. Any observant beachcomber will have seen these, especially at low tide or in the sandy bottoms of rock pools.

Of course, not all marine snails are moon snails … the molluscs that live in the little fortresses of calcium carbonate we call shells come in all shapes, sizes, and species. Cowries, whelks, limpets, periwinkles, oysters, mussels—the list is legion—but the humble bivalve is undoubtedly the moon snail’s gastronomic five-star feast. Whether on the sea floor or the sandy shore, moon snails know no limits to their greed and brutality.

And, as I turned over yet another ‘drill, baby, drill’ victim at the ‘sitting rock’ this week, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between the rampant winner-take-all moon snail and #45—now—#47 Trump, with his rapacious threats to Canada, Greenland, and Panama. Oh, beautiful Iceland, are you next in line? What a weird world we live in!

John Agar
Feature Writer

A word from the chairman

Happy Valentine’s Day. As you enjoy your flowers, bubbles and romantic candlelit dinners spare a thought for the real St Valentine who was martyred for his religious beliefs in third century Rome. The romantic connotation of St Valentine’s Day appears to have been created in the works of English poet and writer Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem, ”The Parlement of Foules” which is all about birds hooking up on St Valentine’s Day. I just hope he locked in the royalties!

The Lorne sky was once again filled with the sight and sound of a large police helicopter on the weekend as it searched for a young woman thought to have been swept out to sea in the roaring Easterlies. Fortunately, it appears that all was well with the woman making her own way back to shore. Another tragedy averted and another lesson to exercise extreme caution in wild weather, and when the beach is closed, that’s what it means!

And yes, the Pickleball craze that is sweeping the world has made it to Lorne. The game is suitable for all ages and abilities and Pickleball Australia reports 268 registered clubs and 16,950 registered members across Australia. Lorne Pickleball is being run under the guidance of Brian Tickell and David McCormack and takes place each Tuesday from 4pm at the Lorne P-12 College basketball courts. During winter months it is planned to move indoors to Stribling Reserve stadium. Please come along to play or watch and you too could become a pickler!

And for something different, Tiffany Eckhardt is starting “The Kindred Choir” at Lorne Community House on Wednesdays at 11am. No experience necessary, all welcome, see the Lorne Community Notice Board for more details or just turn up.

The Aquatic Club has proudly taken delivery of its new courtesy bus. The old bus had served the Club well but was due for retirement, and being manual it limited the pool of available drivers. The new bus is automatic and with its distinctive paintwork and number plate “LAAC” it will be hard to miss.

Upcoming events at the Aquatic Club include live music with the Arch Revival Blues Band on Saturday March 1 from 4-7pm, and the world famous and hotly contested Tomato competition on Friday March 7 at 5pm.

Cheers

John

 

Lorne Ward Events Calendar

February

21 – 2025 Photographic Prize – Routine and Ritual Competition, closes 21 Feb 2025. Shortlist announced 10 Mar 25. Info: lornecommunityconnect.com.au

March

1-30 – Lorne Sculpture Biennale, on the Lorne foreshore.  www.lornesculpture.com

9 – Lorne Aquatic & Angling Club – Major Fishing Competition No 2, Weigh cut off 12.30pm. Free roast lunch for competitors, $10 non-fishing members.                  

30 – Deans Marsh Festival, Live music, local harvest, market stalls, dog jumping, kids events and much more. 10 am – 6pm at Deans Marsh Reserve.

April              

18-28 – 2025 Photographic Exhibition Routine and Ritual. Info: lornecommunityconnect.com.au

20 – Lorne Aquatic & Angling Club – Major Fishing Competition No 3, Weigh cut off 12.30pm. Free roast lunch for competitors, $10 non-fishing members.