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Tag: salps

Fisherman catches cosmopolitan planktonic tunicate. You’ll never guess what various news agencies are calling it.

Posted on January 22, 2014January 22, 2014 By Andrew Thaler 3 Comments on Fisherman catches cosmopolitan planktonic tunicate. You’ll never guess what various news agencies are calling it.
Science

“Translucent fish leaves New Zealand fisherman stunned” ~UK Metro

“Shrimp-like Translucent Sea Creature Found off Northland’s East Coast” ~Science World Report

“Now that’s a jelly fish! Stunned fisherman catches wobbly shrimp-like creature” ~Daily Mail

And another half-dozen variations on translucent, fish, shrimp, and baffled.

article-2543194-1AD845CC00000578-850_634x476This creature, whose image has gone viral in the last few days, is a salp. Salps are pelagic tunicates that drift through the open ocean, sometimes solitary, but often in large aggregations. It both swims and feed by pumping water through its body, filtering out plankton and expelling a jet of water from an organ called the excurrent siphon. In the water they look quite majestic.

Read More “Fisherman catches cosmopolitan planktonic tunicate. You’ll never guess what various news agencies are calling it.” »

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