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Project Noah Nature School
Salpa maxima
Spotted on Feb 18, 2013
Submitted on Feb 25, 2013
9 Comments
Indeed, drP! Sure was interesting! And thank you, birdlady6000!
Very cool!
Thanks for the info. I've seen salps on TV but never in person. What a great find!
drP - I looked at the links you sent and then at a few more photos and articles, as well as size references, etc. Apparently salps have been washing up on this beach lately in fairly large numbers! Best I could tell from my readings this one is a Salpa maxima because of its size (Salpa maxima measure up to 135mm while Salpa fusiformus usually measure 75mm): I would approximate that this specimen was about 120mm.
Always happy to help. Do you have a reference for the species ID?
Would love to see one of these ! -nice photo and good you got an ID for it. Could you remember how big/long it was ?
Aha! Thank you so much drP, that was so helpful!
I can't give you a genus or species, but this is a tunicate, more specifically a pelagic salp. For a picture that looks a lot like yours, check out http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/visitorcent...
Also check out http://www.beachconnection.net/news/salp...
The sole of a sports shoe? :-)