Observation by Michelle Hall:
I walk the beaches of Tofino, British Columbia daily and along North Chesterman beach I came across masses of jelly substance creatures with some feathery tail, all seemingly dead along the tideline. The creatures were different sizes and mixed amongst seaweed and sand and other beach organics, along the entire 3km tideline in their hundreds. North Chesterman beach is a sandy bottom surf zone, with a rocky landscape either side of the beach and some small rocky islands in the middle of the ocean about 100 meters from the shore that are always visible. It was my original assumption that this was some jellyfish die off, similar to the vavella usually found washed up along the Tofino shorelines in August, however, I was wrong!
Experts identified the observation as gooseneck barnacle (GB) smolts. GB are crustaceans and shed their skin so they can grow, the feathery tail is the foot of the barnacle and called a Cirri. This is a regular occurrence and happens from April until October usually, but can happen as often as monthly when they are first growing. All crustaceans smolt and they cannot mate until they have moulted. GB grow in high activity water zones of the ocean, typically up to 10 meters in depth as they need access to light and Oxygen, which means that barnacles need to be able to cope with those violent zones of the ocean.
What was not known was if the numbers of GB smolts had changed over time? Both experts identified that there was no data or baseline here in Tofino to observe that. I would like to know if any other experts can speak to any changes in the numbers of GB smolts and why that would happen?
Goose barnacle