A Very Strange Beach – Not Exactly What You Expect To Find In Place of Sand

April 28, 2014

The last region of Japan that has not been explored is the Iromote Island in Okinawa Perfecture. The island is home to subtropical forests, mangroves, mountains, mangroves, waterfalls, and the Hoshizuna no hama beach, which translate to Star Sand Beach.

What is hard to believe, is the sand is not sand at all, but exoskeletons of small one-celled organisms known as Baclogypsina sphaerulata. These tiny organisms live in the sea grass and at the time of their death, leave the star bodies that wash up onto the shoreline in large quantities.

These star bodies are only found in a few places on earth including two other beaches in Okinawa, which are Aiyaruhama Beach and Kaijihmama Beach.