While conducting surveys in the rocky intertidal zone, occasionally we come across miscellaneous items. Here's a fishing weight that we found about a week ago. It was attached to fishing line that was caught in a mussel bed:
Did you notice the tiny "dots" around the rim and inside of the "3"?
Zooming in:
The tiny dots are newly settled acorn barnacles, Chthamalus dalli. Barnacles really like to settle in "groovy" areas.
I wonder if the lead is toxic to the barnacles.
ReplyDeleteHi, John,
ReplyDeleteGood question. I did a quick search to see if there was information about lead being toxic to barnacles. I found a few articles describing how barnacles can accumulate heavy metals, including lead. These papers didn't describe the toxic effects of lead on barnacles, but they did mention that it might interfere with the role of other essential metals that are important for metabolism. (There might be additional information out there that I didn't encounter on my first try.)
Jackie