It's always good when a bit of research finally resolves a mystery. I now know what the round, gelatinous objects we found today along Golspie beach - see earlier post today - are: they're sea gooseberries. Pleurobrachia pileus is a comb jelly, between 1 and 2.5 cm long, which has two long fishing tentacles which can be up to 15-20 times the length of the body (so, up to 50 cm long), but can be completely retracted into the body. It swims with eight longitudinal combs, arranged in four paired rows down the side of its body, which give the group its name.
I wish I'd known this at the time as I would have taken a much closer look at them.
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