#gooseneck barnacles

[eddieintheocean]

my finished sheet on barnacles!

this one took a little longer because i started it before exams and i never got back to it but i had some time today :)

if any of the sources aren't clear please say and i can find which ever one you would like again :)

and if anyone would like an alt text for any of these i do please just say!

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Look, but don’t touch: 

Gooseneck barnacles (pictured above), a seafood delicacy, fetch as much as $100 per pound at top restaurants in Europe. Along the Oregon coast of Tillamook Bay, they’re free to anyone who shells out $28 for a permit. But even careful plucking could lead to shrinking populations, robbing the shoreline of one of its natural treasures.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ISTOCKPHOTO, GETTY IMAGES

[psikonauti]

Gooseneck barnacles by David Hall

[teenyfish]

Marine Biology Story of the Day

All right time for more.  

So last post I talked about how I went on a trip that sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco across the Pacific Ocean, for science. I also mentioned that there is A LOT OF PLASTIC out there, but most of it is considered micro or nanoplastic.  You need a microscope to see a lot of it.  But, every once and while, you’d run across a buoy or some other kind of plastic debris, sometimes fishing nets.  And this plastic is forming the foundation of a NEW KIND OF MICROHABITAT.  Y’all. Hold onto your butts. 

We picked one of these bad boys up, and all that rough bumpy stuff you see around it?  Well, those are colonies of gooseneck barnacles. 

gooseneck barnacles are unlike your normal barnacles in that they have a long neck that allows them to feed out into the water.  You can also see their long tentacles in great detail (all barnacles have these, but it’s REAL obvious on a gooseneck).  They need water movement to assist with feeding, and so they mostly grow on rocky coasts with lots of wave action.  BUT NOW they are growing on anthropogenic garbage, stuff that gets thrown away on the beach or fishing paraphernalia that breaks loose, and they are forming THEIR OWN MICROHABITATS on little floating “islands” like this buoy in the middle of the ocean.  So in addition to goose neck barnacles, other critters start to hang out, including things like this: 

Not sure what species that blue crab is, but the one on the top is a megalops, or a larval stage of a crab (very smol beebee).  And they all hang on to this thing, along with schools of juvenile fish, and drift through the ocean for thousands upon thousands of miles.  And this is something that’s somewhat unprecedented.  Yes, there is natural flotsam in the ocean, but not at the scale of what we are seeing now, and it certainly often breaks down a lot faster.  These animals may be able to colonize ecosystems that they would not have been able to before, as they have shelter that can take them all the way across the world.

here’s a peak at the ecosystem underwater, in an aquarium we had on board. you do you little crab, you do you. 

So I know this is getting a little long, but another interesting tid-bit about this buoy is that it was Japanese, and it’s possible that it broke loose in the tsunami in 2011.  A lot of plastic from this event was winding up in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (where we were) during the year we were out there (2013). It could have just broken loose in a storm I suppose, but odds are it could have just as easily come from the tsunami event in Japan. 

Hope you enjoy and I’ll be back at you in a couple of days, maybe with some more info on how ship life was like, or maybe I’ll talk about a different trip.  And as always, if you have questions, PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask. 

[russell-tomlin]

Gooseneck barnacles with Pacific Mussels During a Super Negative Tide on the Central Oregon Coast

[noaasanctuaries]

Those aren't dragon claws – they're gooseneck barnacles! 

These filter feeders are found in the rocky tide pools of Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Their shells are made up of multiple white plates that help protect them from predation and desiccation. 

(Photo: Jenny Waddell/NOAA) 

[Image description: White, claw-like barnacles.]

[mouzeron]

barnacles!

[mouzeron]

Barnacles!