Mystery beach critters remain unidentified

Thousands of tiny translucent sea creatures remain unidentified after mysteriously washing up on a Wellington beach.

The black-eyed, sandhopper-like critters were found in clumps on Lyall Bay on Thursday.

A Niwa spokeswoman said the creatures were amphipod crustaceans but the exact species could not be identified until the scientist with knowledge in that area returned to work.

"The scientists did think they were a slightly unusual colour for intertidal ones - they're not usually that dark coloured - so they're going to check them out more on Monday."

There are some 7000 species of amphipod, including the familiar sandhopper.