A few days ago a woman from Australia posted a photo to Facebook of an ‘alien’ like creature that she discovered while walking along the beach in Port Elliot.
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Beachgoer Vicki Evans captioned the post, “Over 26 years walking Horseshoe Bay- I’ve never seen anything quite like this before! Nature never ceases to amaze me!”
Comments began pouring in as people were left in awe of the mystery creature. The oceanic mass was 3 meters long (almost 10 feet!) with long rubbery tendrils. Many of the gelatinous strands had shells on the end of them, which the New York Post noticed looked like “maritime hair-braid beads.”
Some people were freaked out by the creature. One person commenting, “That might just be the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Most users were amazed, another wrote, “That’s nature at it’s finest.”
Eventually, marine ecologist Dr. Zoe Doubleday from the University of South Australia chimed in. Doubleday explained the The Advertiser that the “alien creature” were in fact goose barnacles washed ashore. She says, “They’re strange because barnacles are actually crustaceans but they’re a completely different group of animals – more closely related to a prawn than a cockle.”
Goose Barnacles Considered A Delicacy
Goose barnacles actually attach themselves to food or floating objects in the ocean, Doubleday explains. Although the expert knew exactly what she was looking at, she said she had “never seen anything like it.”
She says, “it just must be an old pylon from a jetty or some piece of marine infrastructure that has been in the water for such a long time to grow a dense cluster of barnacles.”
Apparently goose barnacles aren’t just fascinating to look at, they can also be eaten and are considered a delicacy in parts of the world. Goose barnacles are quite expensive, though, and can be bought for as much as $125 a pound.