EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve been seeing lots of photos of “sea pickles” on community pages that folks are coming across on their beach walks. Here’s a great overview of various invertebrates you might come across on your beach walks.
From Seaside Aquarium:
Beachcombing at its finest: We have been seeing a lot of fun pelagic invertebrates on the beach lately and thought we would share them with you. Most notably have been large pyrosomes. Almost all of the ones we have spotted have been 12-24 inches in length. Commonly referred to as sea pickles, Pyrosomes are actually colonies of multi-celled animals called zooids. These colonies range in size depending on their particular species, with some being up to 30 feet long! They’re usually found in the tropics, but certain conditions can bring them as far north as the Gulf of Alaska. The species that commonly washes ashore along our coastline is called Pyrosoma atlanticum, and they reach a maximum of 2 feet in length.
Other pelagic invertebrates we have come across have been sea cherubs, sea butterflies, and salps. Lastly, on our beachcombing adventure we came across a large chunk of lingcod eggs. We were able to bring them to the aquarium to see if they were still viable. Stay tuned for an update on those.
For more about Seaside Aquarium, go to www.seasideaquarium.com, or visit them in Seaside.
