treasures from the deep

Marnie and I ventured out to the beep the other day with eight kids - five two year olds, two five year olds and one six year old, plus Marnie's four month old puppy! I felt like a mother duck with all the little ones following after us.
The tide was SO low and we found so many cool creatures. This eel was definitely a highlight!
I know I posted this picture in a previous post but it was just too cool to not mention again. Liv found it and was sitting on the shore laughing away at it with Briar calling us to come see. We were trying to move our herd to another part of the beach but I reluctantly went back to check it out. I am SO glad I did! We're not totally sure what kind of fish it was, but when I fished it out of the sand for a thorough check over, it seemed to resemble a lingcod or some similar type of fish. It was about 30 cm long. We let it go in the ocean but it didn't seem too...vibrant. It perked up a bit but I'm not sure if it made it. I hope we didn't cause it it's distress.
The picture doesn't do the colours on this little fish justice. The side of it was a vibrant royal blue! So pretty! Dead but pretty.