What is this?

We took a drive to La Manga this past weekend. La Manga is like the Miami Beach or Marina Del Rey of the Spanish east central coastline. It is interesting. There is a very long and narrow "spit" of land that separates the Mediterranean from a salt water "lake" called Mar Menor. Mar Menor is actually part of Mediterranean, but can only access the sea through a very narrow passage between the mainland and the end of La Manga. La Manga is the barrier that keeps the lake calmer and warmer than the open sea. La Mange is about a 20-mile (plus or minus) very narrow strip. At times, as we were driving, we could see the lake out of one side of the car and the sea out of the other side. In those spots, there was room for the road and maybe one building on one or the other side of the road. In other places, the strip is wider and there are hotels, condos, homes, stores, restaurants and businesses, several buildings deep. This is a very "high end," wealthy area. Most of the buildings are beautiful. The ocean and the lake are beautiful. The lake side was packed with parasails--very colorful and fun to watch. We stopped at a public beach area to let Kat and Ellie get their toes wet. This was our first opportunity to walk on a beach as the weather has been mostly too cool, cloudy, and unpredictable.

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From the picture above, you can see what I mean about Miami Beach! The girls weren't really dressed for the beach, but the water was too cold for that to be an issue. They did walk up and down the beach for a long time picking up shells. We now have started a "cool shell" collection in our condo. Scattered all over the beach, in great abundance, are little round "fur balls," shown in the big picture above, and in Kat's hand in the smaller picture. These ranged in size from that of an orange, to a pea. They were not hard like rocks, but rather somewhat pliable, sort of like a tennis ball. What are they?