“Found on the Beach: A Little Pink Ghost of the Sea”
My girlfriend and I were wandering the sands near our home on Kauaʻi when she spotted something unbelievably tiny: a fragile, almost transparent pink fish lying on the wet sand. At first glance, it almost looked like glass. We picked it up—and realized we might have found a baby flounder (or some kind of flat-bottom dwelling juvenile) shimmering in the morning light.
🐟 What it likely is
This kind of flatfish begins life with one eye on each side of its head—just like any ordinary fish. But as it matures, one eye migrates across the top of the skull so that both eyes end up on one side—an adaptation that lets it lie completely flat on the seafloor.
What we found looked so ephemeral: pink, translucent, soft-bodied, and vulnerable—like a little sea ghost washed ashore.
🌊 Why seeing this is special
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Flatfish such as flounders are bottom-dwellers; their flattened bodies and eye-placement evolution allow them to hide in sand and ambush prey. Ocean Conservancy+1
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A transparent juvenile suggests it’s very young—still in the stage before full coloration and body thickening.
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Finding it on the beach reminds us how delicate their early lives are: washed in by tides, prone to stranding, exposed to sun, predators, and drying.
✅ What we did
We gently moved it back to the water’s edge where the surf meets the sand, let the tide carry it off. No photoshoot or keep-it-forever moment—just an “in the wild” encounter we shared and let go. The world is big enough for these tiny wanderers.
✨ Share-worthy twist
Imagine: a “pink, glass-like baby flounder” washed up at dawn in Hawaiʻi, surviving by blending into the sand until the morning light catches it. It looks like something from another planet—but it’s real, fleeting, and alive.
