[obol] RBA: Perpetua Bank pelagic trip highlights: 25 March 2007

[Cindy Ashy]

Stacy & OBOL,

I got a more detailed description of the jelly from Greg and I did suggest he
also look at some ctenophore pics as well...I definitely think the 3 best
possibilities are salps, doliolids, and ctenophores....in that order. From his
original description of jet propulsion...water running through the animal
(contractable siphons on each end but its the circular body muscles that move
the water through)...and tube shaped, not barrel-shaped or football
shaped...and with internal "tubes" (further description of straight tubes
running entire length...and evidently not 8 opaque longitudinal muscle bands
with rows of cilia beneath - these are usually pretty apparent if you see the
animal live and moving)...my best guess would be a salp....from the internet
pics Greg forwarded me today showing general shape and other comments about
what he saw, best candidate again is a salp. They often do feed right at the
surface...in fact, quite voracious (and very important in carbon dioxide
cycling). Some thaliaceans (the class that salps and doliolids are in)
bioluminesce brightly (pyrosomes - spelling??) but I suspect the color that
Greg saw was "structural" based on the refraction of light in the
transparent/translucent tunic (the cellulose "skin" of the animal - much
tougher than it looks). 

By the way, ctenophores are near and dear to my heart as I had some amazing
experiences swimming with them in a warm fall tidal creek on the east
coast....the bright glowing swirls of blue green were so ethereal it felt like
we were swimming through the northern lights...our friends were too chicken to
try thinking they were going to get stung but unlike cnidarian jellies (true
jellyfish and siphophores), ctenophores (different phylum) do not have stinging
cells.

Sorry, I've lapsed into invertebrates again...off to check on the murres (there
were many THOUSANDS at Yaquina Head early this morning...more later).

Cindy Ashy


 
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