Anenome Archives - stopped & stared

A couple of weeks ago it was very common to see strange objects which looked
glass-like translucent and plastic, whilst others seemed softer, more
opaque and hairyer. Not only were they littering the sea floor but were also driting in mid water. On the whole the fish left them alone.

I touched one and it felt hard also as if it were made of plastic. It was very strange. So I emailed an image of one to our pal Andy to see if he knew what they were.

After a bit of hunting around he came back with an answer "I'm 100% sure that these tubes are Pyrosoma, and these ones
could possibly be 'Pyrosoma atlanticum".

Andy explained that my plastic tubes are also known to move and
die in large numbers and that they also use jet propulsion to move around.

Pyrosome, are colonial
tunicates that float in the water off the sea bed.

An example of a
tunicate is a sea squirt. They live mostly out in the open ocean and
can migrate a few hundred meters each day vertically. They are filter
feeders (hence the 2 holes either end). It's not too clear whether the images below have caught examples which are
alive or not… there might be some sort of a valve either end to
control filtering.

Andy suggested that the hairs on the outside might be used as
locomotion and that it might be able to use bioluminescence.

So, there you have it. My mystery was easily explained so long as you know who to ask and how to structure the right question.

I thought the shots below were quite interesting.

1. Anenome

2. Pyrosome

3. Anenome with Pyrosome

Arriving early at work, today was spent doing two dives.

Two former members of the dive school staff, Marina and Jason joined us. Jason is a qualified instructor and Marina worked as a Divemaster.

Back in the UK Jason now works as a forester and Marina works in catering.

Jason spoke to me about the effects of Red Band Needle Blight, a tree disease that is decimating the Corsican pine stocks. Scots pine is as yet not so severely affected.

We also spoke about Sudden Oak Death and the growing experiments in the UK using Eucalyptus for bio fuels. dead interesting!

In the morning I was 'buddied' with Dave who comes out here to Lanzarote diving and leaves his kit on the island between trips. In the Afternoon I was with Stephen who I have mentioned before works with flight simulators.

Both dives were at Peurto del Carmen.

Although I saw dozens of fish, the new creatures of the day included
fields of garden eels, poking their bodies out of their holes like
periscopes, their heads turned into the current.

Later I saw dozens of angel hair anemone, beautiful white delicate looking animals.

The afternoons dive was along the harbour wall and provided a close encounter with a cuttle fish, and still more sea cucumbers (which now I want to touch). On the way back to the harbour stairs to exit the dive site, an angel sharks outline was spotted by Simon, the instructor/dive guide.

Simon carefully wafted some sand from the back of the shark and we were invited to stroke its pectoral fin. The skin was rough like sandpaper.

I have been pretty tired today. Not sure whether it is the heat, diving every day, the cycling or what. I am eating well and sleeping just fine. I will monitor the situation and report back.

Tag Archive for: Anenome

a colonial tunicate that floats in the water

fields of garden eels