Sunday, May 17, 2015

Adrift

 

I ran out of time tonight, but I'll leave you with a couple of mystery photos to ponder.  I'll post more photos and information about them tomorrow night.

We noticed these blue-gray patches on a few Sea Palms (Postelsia palmaeformis) that had drifted and then washed up on Salmon Creek Beach on 15 May 2015.

Can you guess what the patches are?

Here's another clue — well, at least it's a close-up that reveals a little bit more:

 

Tune in tomorrow for the answer!
 
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3 comments:

  1. Matt RobartMay 18, 2015 at 9:16 AM

    Lepas cyprids?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jackie SonesMay 18, 2015 at 9:39 AM

    Score one for Matt Robart!

    I'll explain more tonight, but Matt guessed correctly -- these are very dense patches of pelagic barnacle cyprids (the settling stage). Lepas is the genus.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt RobartMay 18, 2015 at 9:59 AM

    Sweet, those 1000s of hours on a scope have finally paid off!

    ReplyDelete