Currently washing up on our west coast shores are Turritopsis, with the first one found in Bayleys Beach in Jan 2017 by @simonnicholas then in Mar 2017 @jacqui-nz found more at Karekare and contacted me to see if I had seen them. Needless to say I was off and found them out on the Tohe - 90 Mile Beach. How many more can we find? http://inaturalist.nz/observations/5220928 is the obs with lots of info about these :)

I am sure we all know the New Zealand Common Cushion Star (Patiriella regularis) and have walked past them many times without taking too much notice - I know I have! However, there is also another common endemic cushion star that lurks in the same habitat as @clinton pointed out to me in this obs and we do not have it on NW yet.

The M.mortenseni is dark red or blue and looks smooth when wet whereas the common one is not. If you look at all of the common cushion star obs found you will be able to see quite clearly at a glance that they are not smooth.

Habitat
Same as the New Zealand Common Cushion Star (Patiriella regularis).

What to photograph
Both the top and underside of the cushion star to help with ID.

Happy Hunting!