Went for a long walk with the wife and dog at North Piha yesterday and found a old pallet on the beach.

Must have been drifting around at sea for quite a while.

I could only find one species of animal on this and it was EVERYWHERE.. every little cm2 was occupied by very strange creatures. (well one that I definitely haven't seen before)

Had a watery filled stalk, then a mussel sort of house split in several segments with claw like filtering sort of arms coming out of it.

Anyone know this one?

goose barnacles

I know then as gooseneck barnacles

:sick: nice pics however

It's the Common Sea Greeblie

they taste nice

hard to keep alive without phyto plankton

Nice pics. Must be a blue plastic pallet under there? Looks like a bit of blue on the second pic and I'd guess a wooden one would have sunk before it had time to accumulate that many.

I suppose now they will all die through being washed up on the beach?

probably already dead considering they are opened

:sick: interesting critters..

Nice pics. Must be a blue plastic pallet under there? Looks like a bit of blue on the second pic and I'd guess a wooden one would have sunk before it had time to accumulate that many.

It was a wooden one, painted blue.. so maybe one of those CHEP pallets.. must have been close to sinking cos the whole top was covered in them too.

I guess the ironic thing is that that more barnacles grow on it the heavier it gets and eventually sinks an sends them all plumeting to their deaths in the deep (unless they wash up on a beach and die, like this one)

probably already dead considering they are opened

Thanks for the ID F15hguy.. No they were all alive and swaying around trying to find water no doubt. It was on our way back we saw it so must have washed in just 10min max before we saw it.

OMG they are so ugly....

they remind me of why you should never swim naked in a mussel farm

Could they have been farmed and someone just lost some stock?

huh???

as far as I know LA is the only person who eats them

I spearfish. Sometimes people put pallets at sea with a buoy in the hope in summer mahi mahi hang around them.. There is a name for it but can't remember. Maybe originally used for that and broke off... just a thought.

Otherwise a long time at sea.

Rena?

Rena?

Unlikely.. it would have to have circumnavigated around the north island to end up at Piha (west coast of Auckland)

its called using a FAD (Fish attractant device)

very effective