The Mermaid’s Purse…
It lay upon a deck on Newlyn’s quay.
A dark specimen with tendrils, quite weightless,
Lying amongst a scattering of white squid, discarded
And awaiting a hose-down, or the crude bill of a scavenging gull.
The mermaid’s purse, its feelers delicate
And reedy, from sea-bed weed netted and trawled,
Lay unimpressively black, yet timeless,
Seemingly the egg-case of a cuckoo ray…
Pete Ray
19th December 2022
By chance the egg-case lay untouched on a Newlyn quay, an unusual find for a city dweller…
It has since dried to a very dark brown.
A cuckoo ray is a member of the skate family, often sold as ‘skate wings’.
It eats small crustaceans and worms, although it does have crushing mouth plates with which to eat other fish.
It has four rows of sharp thorn-like rough edges on its lower back and tail.
It can lay roughly 70 to 150 eggs each year…
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