Green surprise on the Swedish west coast – a new sea anemone found in shallow water

A bright green sea anemone, which lives in waters as shallow as just a few decimetres, has appeared in a limited area of Bohuslän.

Its scientific name is Anthopleura ballii, but the anemone does not yet have a Swedish name. It normally lives in the waters around the British Isles and further south in Europe.

Perhaps it could change our understanding of which species can thrive in a changing sea?

We spoke to Kennet Lundin, a marine biologist at the Gothenburg Museum of Natural History, who has taken a closer look at the green sea anemone, and it turns out that it has an incredibly fascinating way of life. It lives in symbiosis with photosynthetic zooxanthellae, something that is very unusual for anemones living in cold waters.

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