Beach finds

Longer story, but we haven't been able to walk the beach lately.  But we went for a quick walk on Salmon Creek Beach after work tonight.  There were some interesting invertebrates washed up, perhaps due to the large waves during the storms this weekend?

I only took a few photos for the record.  I'll show three different animals.  Do you want to guess what they are?  I showed all three on the blog last year, so if you've been reading for a while, you might have seen them before.  If you're new to the blog, you'll be at a disadvantage, but you can still play along.  Don't worry if they're unfamiliar — these are pelagic animals not often seen onshore!

There were hundreds of Animal A:

 

Around 50 of Animal B:

 

And only a few of Animal C:

 

And the answers are:

Animal A = the swimming bell of a siphonophore, Diphyes dispar

Animal B = a small pyrosome ("fire body"), probably Pyrosoma atlanticum

Animal C = a salp, possibly Salpa fusiformis 

 

I mentioned that I posted about all of these animals in 2014.  If you'd like to review those entries (or read them for the first time), here are the links:

• From the south on 26 October 2014 (siphonophore)

• "Fire bodies" on 8 December 2014 (pyrosome)

• March Madness on 31 March 2014 (salp)

Note that some of these animals may be associated with warmer ocean water.  The water temperature is still an astounding 14.5°C (58°F) — unusually warm for this time of year.