Barnacles

Barnacles

 Barnacles

Barnacles are small crustaceans that are arthropods and closely related to the blue crab.

They are found attached to hard surfaces such as rocks, pilings, grasses, boat bottoms and even oysters and clam shells. They can tolerate an variety of conditions from high salinity at the inlets to the bay to nearly fresh water. 

Barnacles vary in color from gray to white and in size from less than half an inch to 3/4 inch in diameter.

There are two major groups of barnacles:

Acorn barnacles (Family - Balanomorpha) attach directly to a firm surface.  Some species of acorn barnacles are a common in Barnegat Bay, covering rocks and other stationary objects. When the tide is in, they open their shell-like cases and use their legs to catch particles in the water column.

Goose barnacles (Family - Lepadomorpha) typically live in the ocean and attach to floating objects by a long rubbery stalk - sometimes called "goose-neck" barnacles.

Acorn barnacle species live in intertidal regions and are exposed to the air for a significant part of each day.

Their body is a shell of six overlapping plates of calcite with a gap at the top covered by an operculum that open when the animal is submerged, and close when it is exposed to the air.

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The base of this igloo-like structure attaches to a firm surface such as a pier, rock, or the hull of a boat.

When the tide is low, the barnacle closes to retain moisture and does not emerge from its "igloo" until it is again submerged, at which time six pairs of feathery, chitinous legs called cirri emerge and sweep the water for planktonic material (its source of nourishment) and water (for oxygen) into its cavity.