Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Help wanted; identify these, if you will

Last week, at Crescent Beach, we noticed this large bull kelp caught on the pilings of the pier. The tide going out dragged it into the sunlight, and we could see these white jelly-like things on it.


I had never seen anything like this before. Can anyone identify them?

Laurie climbed through the railing onto a slime-covered board a few inches wide and bent 'way around the corner to take this shot. I almost had a heart attack.


I hung over the railing, zooming in as far as I could.


Cropping and increasing contrast to show the things more clearly. Click on the photo for a full-size view.

How about it? Does anyone recognize them? Are they what they look like to me?

Help!
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2 comments:

  1. Hugh Griffith11:41 am

    Could they be tunicates, something like Ciona? The ones on the bottom have the "bilobed" inspout-outspout shape of a tunicate. Other ones that look as though they have tentacles may be damaged. It's the sort of place I would expect to see tunicates. This is my best guess, but I'm not really sure.

    Hugh

    ReplyDelete
  2. Susannah Anderson11:54 pm

    Thanks, Hugh.

    I think I'll post what I found, following your hint, on the next post.

    ReplyDelete

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