Rare goose barnacles discovered on Hastings beach
A rare colony of bizarre ocean voyagers has gone on show at Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium after being found stranded on a nearby beach.
More than 150 goose barnacles were brought into the aquarium by a beachcomber after they were washed ashore on a piece of rubber.
Normally only found in warmer waters, goose barnacles, which can measure up to 10 inches in length, spend their lives attached to floating flotsam and jetsam using long feathery appendages to net passing food.
During stormy weather at sea this flotsam is occasionally blown inshore with its exotic passengers still firmly attached.
Blue Reef Curator Daniel Davies said: "We got a phone call from a local fisherman saying he had found them floating in the Channel.
"Although they look like giant shellfish, goose barnacles are actually related to crabs and lobsters.
"Because they normally live in warm water environments we were concerned they may be dead. On arrival however they were found to be in excellent condition and we immediately placed them in a heated tank to warm them up.
"We're currently feeding them on a diet of live artemia which they're wolfing down.
"They arrived in two big clumps attached to the piece of rubber which we've placed into the display with them to allow them to float around just as they would in the open ocean," he added.
Goose barnacles get their name from the fact that, in medieval times, people believed the barnacles were not animals in their own right but the eggs laid by geese.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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