Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacle (Lepas anatifera)

Other Names: pelagic stalked barnacle, common goose barnacle, blue goose barnacle

Description: Pelagic gooseneck barnacles are typically found washed up on the beach attached to an object that has been floating in open ocean like a buoy or drift wood. They group together in clumps attaching the base of their stalk to the object. The stalk look and feels like a worm, typically a translucent yellow that fades to a dark gray. At the top of the stalk is a multipart shell that can open and close. These shells look very similar to the intertidal gooseneck barnacles, but they are smooth and only contain 5 white sections compared to the rough scaly intertidal gooseneck barnacle. Feather-like appendages called cirri extend out from the shell to filter food out of the water. Like other barnacles, pelagic gooseneck barnacles a

Habitat: As the name suggests, pelagic gooseneck barnacles are an animal that lives in open ocean. They attach to substrate that is not exposed during low tide, like rocks, docks, buoys, or other floating objects.

Diet: Like their barnacle relatives, pelagic gooseneck barnacles use their cirri to catch plankton from the water.

Tide Pool Tidbits:

• The stalks of pelagic gooseneck barnacles are called peduncles and can grow to 15cm long.

• Early scientists in the 1200s believed that pelagic gooseneck barnacles were a part of the drift wood that they were typically found growing on.

• Pelagic gooseneck barnacles can sometimes be found growing on larger marine animals like whales.

Reference: Biodiversity of the Central Coast