Sea Grape (Molgula)

from $105.00
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Live Sea Grape (Molgula spp.)
Please Note: This is a live marine specimen.

The Sea Grape (Molgula spp.) is a solitary tunicate, or “sea squirt,” commonly found attached to mooring lines, pilings, and submerged rocks. These rounded, translucent-gray organisms resemble small grapes and are known for their unique filter-feeding behavior—drawing in seawater to extract plankton and nutrients.

Collected year-round from the Gulf of Maine, each specimen provides a fascinating example of simple yet efficient marine invertebrate anatomy. Perfect for classroom study, aquaria, and touch tank exhibits, the Sea Grape helps illustrate how tunicates bridge the gap between invertebrates and vertebrates in evolutionary biology.

Common name: Sea grape
Scientific name: Molgula spp.
Locations: Mooring lines, buoys, traps, pilings, floats, salmon pens, undersides of rocks
Seasonality: Available year round
Colors: Dull gray or translucent gray
Size: ½" – 1"
Collected: By hand, scraped from rocks and lines
Quantity: Sold by the each

Uses: Ideal for marine biology education, classroom dissection, aquaria, and evolutionary study.

Note: This is a live marine specimen. Natural variations in size, color, and appearance from photos should be expected. If you would like any specimen preserved, please send a request to: info@gulfofme.com.

Live Sea Grape (Molgula spp.)
Please Note: This is a live marine specimen.

The Sea Grape (Molgula spp.) is a solitary tunicate, or “sea squirt,” commonly found attached to mooring lines, pilings, and submerged rocks. These rounded, translucent-gray organisms resemble small grapes and are known for their unique filter-feeding behavior—drawing in seawater to extract plankton and nutrients.

Collected year-round from the Gulf of Maine, each specimen provides a fascinating example of simple yet efficient marine invertebrate anatomy. Perfect for classroom study, aquaria, and touch tank exhibits, the Sea Grape helps illustrate how tunicates bridge the gap between invertebrates and vertebrates in evolutionary biology.

Common name: Sea grape
Scientific name: Molgula spp.
Locations: Mooring lines, buoys, traps, pilings, floats, salmon pens, undersides of rocks
Seasonality: Available year round
Colors: Dull gray or translucent gray
Size: ½" – 1"
Collected: By hand, scraped from rocks and lines
Quantity: Sold by the each

Uses: Ideal for marine biology education, classroom dissection, aquaria, and evolutionary study.

Note: This is a live marine specimen. Natural variations in size, color, and appearance from photos should be expected. If you would like any specimen preserved, please send a request to: info@gulfofme.com.

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Sea grapes attached to a kelp holdfast and a sponge.

 

Tidepool Tim says, "Sea grapes are pretty boring, really.  Not much to say about them except for the fact that they're another species of tunicates that we have here in our cold Atlantic waters.  They are common on EVERYTHING that is floating out here in our bay from channel markers to lobster buoys, to mooring lines.  They literally COVER the nets used in our local salmon aquaculture farms.  Sometimes there are so many sea grapes growing on a net that massive cranes must be brought in just to change the nets out on the salmon cages. 

In our tidepooling quests we often see them cemented to the bottoms of rocks that have good water flow under them.  They do look like a peeled grape or a jelly-bean that some kid sucked the outside off and pitched into the sea.  Looking closely, one can see the siphons and the primitive guts through their tunic or skin.  There are a bunch of different species around - we call them all 'grapes'. Often they are mixed in with several other species of squirts on a rocky bottom and also beside lamp shell."