Comparing goosenecks

 

Close-up of a pelagic gooseneck barnacle (Lepas sp.) on a piece of driftwood, 11 March 2024.  These barnacles attach to floating materials in the open ocean.  

Lepas is similar to Pollicipes polymerus, the gooseneck barnacle that lives in the rocky intertidal zone, but you can see a number of differences: 

- Lepas has fewer calcareous plates.
- Lepas has a smoother stalk texture.
- Pollicipes tends to have dark pigment (red, brown, or black) at the edges of the largest plates, whereas these areas are paler in Lepas (but can be orange).  

See below for a comparison!

 

 

Cloudy with a chance of sailors

  

Eric and I did a quick beach survey at the end of the day today as the storm was letting up.  There were thousands of By-the-wind Sailors (Velella velella) washed up.  Some were up to ~3-4 cm long, but the vast majority were under 1 cm long and the most abundant size was only ~1-2 mm long (second photo below with millimeter ruler):

 

 

 

 

We also found one Purple Sea Snail (Janthina umbilicata), hundreds of swimming bells of the siphonophore Diphyes dispar, one pyrosome (I thought there might be more today), and pieces of driftwood with pelagic barnacles (Lepas sp.).

 

The view as rain showers were clearing:

 

 

 

Washing up

 

 

With ocean temperatures quite warm recently (in the 17-18°C or 62-64°F range) and with El Niño conditions present in the Pacific Ocean, we're keeping an eye out for more southern/warm-water species.

 

Above is a piece of a Purple-striped Jelly (Chrysaora colorata) that we encountered at Limantour Beach on 26 August 2023.  (To see an entire individual, see the post called "Southern drifter?" on 27 July 2014.

We also came across this wooden pallet covered with pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.).  These barnacles aren't necessarily associated with warm water, but they are typically found offshore, so seeing them on the beach indicates that offshore species are appearing closer to the coast.

 

 

 

 

 

Nestled among the branchlets

 

 

We looked down to see this interesting seaweed on the beach today — Cumagloia andersonii.  It usually doesn't have little white specks on it, so we took a closer look.  Below you can see a hint of what's attached to it:

 

 

These are juvenile pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.).  That means it's likely the seaweed has been drifting offshore for a while (long enough for planktonic barnacles to find it, settle, and start to grow).  Although we often see Lepas attached to drift kelp, I couldn't recall seeing Lepas on Cumagloia before, so took a few documentary photos.  

 

Here's an even closer photo where you can see the barnacles nestled among the branchlets of the seaweed:

 

 

P.S.  Ocean temperatures off Bodega Head have been quite warm this week — up to ~16°C or >60°F.  It'll be interesting to keep an eye on these temperatures during the next couple of months.

In the grooves

  

Along with Velella and other wash-ashores, Eric spotted this glass bottle washed up on the beach yesterday (2 April 2023).  The bottle's shape was unusual, but the grooves and indentations were perfect attachment spots for pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.):

 

 

P.S.  Anyone know what kind of bottle this is?  I tried to locate something similar on the Internet but couldn't find a match.  If you have any ideas, let me know!

A chance meeting

  

Eric spotted this Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) holdfast washed up on the beach recently.  The holdfast was still attached to a sizable piece of rock.  And it was interesting to see both Giant Barnacles (Balanus nubilus) — the large white barnacles in the center of the image — and pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.) — the small grayish clusters of barnacles along the left edge of the image.  

Giant Barnacles can be found in the low intertidal zone and subtidally, but pelagic barnacles are generally found offshore in the open ocean.  I'm not sure how often these two species of barnacles are found growing in the same place.  And seeing Lepas on this holdfast means the kelp and the rock it was attached to have been floating around offshore for a while before washing ashore.

Any bright ideas?

 

Yesterday, 7 March 2016, I encountered this very large light bulb washed up on the beach. 

Here's a picture with my foot for scale:

 

I don't know anything about vintage (?) light bulbs, so if anyone can provide more information about this bulb, I'd be very interested.  Can you tell how old it is?  What was this type of bulb used for?  Are they still in use today?

You might have noticed that one side of the bulb (the side that was floating downward below the ocean surface) supported a few different pelagic animals.

Here's a closer view of that side:

 

And I zoomed in even in more so that you can see the pelagic gooseneck barnacles (Lepas sp.) and the bryozoans (off-white, rough patches):

 

I'd love to hear any ideas you might have about the type of bulb this is.

 

Blue ribbon

Okay, do you remember the mystery photos from last night?

 

Some of you might have noticed in the Comments section that Matt won the prize — he guessed correctly that these patches are dense concentrations of pelagic barnacle cyprids.  Recall that cyprids are the final larval stage that settles out of the plankton.  In this case, these are the cyprids of a pelagic gooseneck barnacle called Lepas sp. 

Here's a close-up of the cyprids under a microscope:

 

After settling on a floating substrate, the cyprids will undergo metamorphosis into juvenile barnacles.  A few of them had already done so:

 

I wanted to post these pictures on the blog because there have been amazing numbers of Lepas cyprids this year — more than any other year since I've been observing floating objects washing ashore in Bodega Bay.  I've wondered if it could be related to the warm water temperatures last year, but we can't be certain.

What's perhaps even more fun, though, is that when I went to take these documentary pictures, I noticed a few other things among the cyprids!

 

At first I thought this was just a blue tentacle (perhaps from Velella)...but then it started moving...and then I noticed the eye spots at the anterior (front) end.  A tiny blue ribbon worm!  I'd never seen a blue ribbon worm before.

One time the ribbon worm left one patch of cyprids and crossed the great divide to another patch of cyprids.  If anyone has thoughts about the identity of this ribbon worm, I'd love to hear more.

 

When I was scanning the cyprids, I also noticed quite a few small light brown spots.  If you look very carefully, you'll see them in the lower left corner of the next photo, nestled among the cyprids:

 

When I zoomed in, I could see that these brown spots were moving, that they had dark eyespots, and that they might have some sort of paired structures forming on their heads (see small bumps in image below).

 

Although I'm uncertain, my best guess for these little brown blobs is that they could be very young pelagic nudibranchs (Fiona pinnata).  I've written about Fiona before (see post on 19 October 2012), but I've never seen one this small, hence my uncertainty.  What do you think?  Do you have a different guess?

The Sea Palm and Lepas cyprids reminded us of a valuable lesson — it's always worth taking a closer look!

Pelagic barnacles attached to a...

Sometimes I'm asked what my favorite invertebrate is.  I can't answer that question, because I'm intrigued by so many of them.  However, pelagic barnacles (Lepas spp.) would definitely make it onto a list of candidate species.  We found some a few days ago washed up on Salmon Creek Beach.  

Pelagic barnacles are often attached to driftwood or floating seaweed, but this time Eric spotted some growing on a different object.  Can you tell what it is?

 

Here's a slightly different angle:

 

And another showing the opposite side with a larger cluster of barnacles:

 

Did you guess what the barnacles were attached to?  

Warning: The next picture will give it away.

  

Yes!  These pelagic barnacles were growing on a feather!

When examined closely, Eric noticed a newly settled barnacle larva, called a cyprid, attached to the feather, too (see below).  You can see it just off to the left of the large cluster of feeding barnacles.

 

Below is a close-up of the cyprid:

 

Although I haven't photographed a cyprid on a feather before, I shared some nice images and an explanation about pelagic barnacle cyprids in 2012.

After Eric spotted the first feather-with-barnacles, I wondered how many we had passed by.  Although we were near the end of our walk, I found one more:

 

After discovering them, we had lots of questions.  For example — Do the barnacles prefer a certain region of the feather?  If so, why?  Do some types of feathers make better floating rafts than others?  How many barnacles would it take to sink a feather?