Squillions of swarming shrimp-things

I will write a proper blog about our Tasman Bay trip soon, but there is a mystery to be solved first.

While we were anchored up in Queen Charlotte Sounds we found ourselves surrounded by thousands of critters that looked like this:

I was so fascinated I even made a short film: http://youtu.be/PE2xTdgX5SI

By day two there were so many of them they were actually making the water boil http://youtu.be/dc0xdXYO6W8

and were covering the bay like the red weed from War of the Worlds

They also rather bemused a couple of local geese who attempted fruitlessly to munch on them http://youtu.be/nyCV10YRCkw

So far the theories are shrimp, krill or lost baby lobsters, but we really have no idea. So if any of you can identify the mystery critters it would be much appreciated.

No prizes other than public acknowledgement that you know something I don’t!

(There’s a slightly closer view of them here too – apologies for quality of filming. The little buggers moved about so much it was hard to follow them without blurring the shot http://youtu.be/lvmTn6xmSUM)