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Weird Beach Goo on Oregon Coast; Humpback Attacked by Orca
Published 09/29/2010
(Oregon Coast) – It’s a tale of a deceased whale and of weird beach goo on the Oregon coast in recent days, in two different areas of the coastline. (photos by Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium)
Something weird and slimy has been hitting some north coast beaches in great numbers this week.
“Today you may have noticed a plethora of strange gelatinous material littering local Clatsop beaches,” said Tiffany Boothe, with the Seaside Aquarium. “These strange, gooey substances are actually animals called salps. Salps are basically pelagic tunicates that feed on plankton as they ride along with the ocean's currents.
“Sometimes, when following a closer inshore current, strong westerly winds can drive them into the surf where they get beat up and eventually get stranded on the beach.”
Boothe said there are literally thousands of these salps around Cannon Beach.
This particular kind of salp is not quite as long as a ballpoint pen.
West winds often blow in lots of other kinds of creatures, especially the velella velella, a very purple jellyfish that can wash up in the thousands as well, eventually leading to a very stinky beach as they decay.
Photo Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium
Salps are the most common of pelagic tunicates, especially in the Pacific Ocean, and can form enormous groups of millions of them in the sea, playing an integral role in certain marine ecosystems.
They grow the fastest of any multicellular organism, according to jellieszone.com, and have a cylindrical body surrounded by the jelly-like, transparent covering. It contracts a series of bands of muscles to shoot itself through the water via jet action.
Some forms of salps snag their food via a kind of mucous net that comes from a specialized gland. The net – or “house,” as it’s called by scientists – is let go when it’s clogged with food, and a new one is soon excreted by the gland. These salps can create up to ten of these houses in a day, but must swim continuously to feed.
Multiple salps on the beach (photo Seaside Aquarium)
They are primarily preyed upon by larger jellyfish, sea turtles, marine birds and various fish. Some smaller fish and other sea creatures latch on to salps and actually use them as a kind of traveling home.
At Lost Creek State Park, just south of Newport, a 35-foot Humpback whale died out at sea and washed up on shore in recent days. Scientists say it had probably been lashed by a killer whale.
Officials from the Hatfield Marine Science Center said there were distinctive tooth marks on the whale, most likely from a killer whale. These do attack Humpbacks periodically, so the rake marks could simply be scars from previous encounters and not necessarily the fatal wounds.
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| Lost Creek near Newport: it now has a whale buried in the sand |
But scientists on the scene told KGW news that the Humpback’s tongue had been torn away, which is how killer whales often attack other whales. They go for the tongue for food, especially large whales.
Scientists said it was likely the creature washed up onshore just hours after being attacked by a group of killer whales.
Scientists took some samples and then buried the whale in the sand.
Gray whales are far more common in Oregon coast waters than Humpbacks, and it is standard for killer whales to go after younger whales, especially gray whales, to try and eat them. It is unusual, however, for them to go after a larger whale.
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